Potential of Synthetizing Climatopes and Local Climate Zones for Urban Climatic Planning Recommendations: A Case Study in Toulouse, France

Abstract

The urban climatic map (UCMap) is an urban climate information tool for planning purpose commonly used in German-speaking countries while local climate zone (LCZ) scheme is developed to link the characteristics urban climate and urban morphology at the city level world widely. These two frameworks differ with each other on the aspect of data sources, classification standards, and planning implementation. This study explores the potential of integrating these two complementary frameworks to identify problematic hot spots and propose some generic urban planning recommendations according to current urban climate standards. To address this issue, the Toulouse Metropole area is taken as a case study; a hybrid Climatope-LCZ map is derived by synthetizing the classification of climatopes, based on the German standard (VDI 3787-Part 1), and LCZs at equivalent spatial positions. Furthermore, the simulated meteorological data about wind and thermal environments of Toulouse Metropole during typical summer season are introduced as evidence for analyzing the mutual benefits on urban climate study and application. According to the results, both the heterogeneous urban geometric characteristics and urban climatic issues within a climatope are well identified spatially by the corresponding composition of LCZ. Likewise, the differences of thermal stress between climatopes but in the same LCZ are also clearly illustrated. Lastly, a list of urban climatic planning recommendations for LCZs is proposed followed by the guidelines in VDI 3787-Part 1. This study proves that hybrid Climatope-LCZ map offers more detailed urban climate information to planners or decision-makers than classic urban climate map framework.