Municipal, private and participatory climate monitoring as data support for climate change adaptation: a case study

Abstract

In the highly urbanised region of Central Europe, the incoming impacts of climate change call for a timely adaptation to the altered climatic conditions in its urban areas. Detailed climate monitoring is required in order to provide relevant data support for appropriate urban planning and management. Traditional meteorological monitoring stations, located based on general WHO standards, need to be complemented by denser urban climate monitoring networks, capable of detecting the local differences in climatic conditions based on the complex mosaic of architecture, street design, urban greenery, etc. In Prague, Czechia, data from stations of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) were compared with i) data of the municipal network for climate monitoring (OICT) established as a pilot study of detailed data collection for the needs of climate-adaptation oriented urban planning and management; ii) data of a private company Meteocentrum, which were provided to us for research purposes; and iii) data of a public, participatory-based NetAtmo network. Despite different data quality and needs for data corrections, preliminary results suggest that urban heat island intensity based on daily mean, minimum, and maximum temperature (UHII*) was highest in local climate zones LCZ 2, LCZ 5, and LCZ 8, and lowest in LCZ B and LCZ D. The specifics in solar irradiation at the station during the day, characteristics of the surface, the relief, and the general “representativeness” of the parent LCZ class properties all impact the detected interzonal and intrazonal spatial variability. The extent and spatial pattern of Prague’s UHII* differs at night and during the day, and also across the seasons. The results support the idea that multiple network data series can be a useful contribution to our understanding of the changing climate in Prague.