Title: Study of the urban heat island in Lecce (Italy) by means of ADMS and ENVI-MET

Authors: Giuseppe Maggiotto; Riccardo Buccolieri; Marco A. Santo; Silvana Di Sabatino; Laura S. Leo

Addresses: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, University of Salento, S.P. 6 Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, University of Salento, S.P. 6 Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, University of Salento, S.P. 6 Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, University of Salento, S.P. 6 Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratories, Civil Engineering & Geological Sciences University of Notre Dame, 156 Fitzpatrick Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

Abstract: The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon may produce several cascade effects on citizens' health, energy consumption and air quality. Numerical modelling is recognised to be a powerful tool for the analysis of the UHI, although the question of which model to use (as implied in the 'fit-for-purpose' approach) much depends on the application and on the result of satisfactory validation against field measurements. In this paper, two different modelling approaches are applied, namely the integral-semi-Gaussian model ADMS-TH and the CFD-based model ENVI-met, to assess the UHI phenomenon in a city of south Italy (Lecce). Modelling results are validated against field measurements collected during summer 2012. The results suggest that the integral model has the ability of capturing the UHI cycle at city scale, while CFD modelling did not provide any substantial improvements in terms of local geometric effects on temperature distribution.

Keywords: ENVI-met; ADMS; temperature modelling; humidity modelling; land use; urban morphology; urban heat islands; UHI; air quality; air pollution; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; Italy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2014.065903

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2014 Vol.55 No.1/2/3/4, pp.41 - 49

Published online: 17 Dec 2014 *

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