Can the crowdsourcing data paradigm take atmospheric science to a new level? A case study of the urban heat island of London quantified using Netatmo weather stations

International Journal of Climatology

Volumn 37, Issue 9, 2017, Pages 3597-3605

  Chapman, Lee ^a   Bell, Cassandra ^a   Bell, Simon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

crowdsourcing; low cost sensors; urban heat island

Indexed keywords

CROWDSOURCING; THERMAL POLLUTION; WEATHER INFORMATION SERVICES;

AIR TEMPERATURE; ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE; ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY; LOW-COST SENSORS; PHYSICAL PROCESS; URBAN HEAT ISLAND; URBAN METEOROLOGY; WEATHER STATIONS;

ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE;

AIR TEMPERATURE; CROWDSOURCING; HEAT ISLAND; METEOROLOGY; SENSOR; SUMMER;

ENGLAND; LONDON [ENGLAND]; UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 85006253087     PISSN: 08998418     EISSN: 10970088     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/joc.4940     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Basara JB, Illston BG, Fiebrich CA, Browder PD, Morgan CR, McCombs A, Bostic JP, McPherson RA, Schroeder AJ, Crawford KC. 2011. The Oklahoma city micronet. Meteorol. Appl. 18: 252–261.
2. Bell S, Cornford D, Bastin L. 2013. The state of automated amateur weather observations. Weather 68: 36–41.
3. Bell S, Cornford D, Bastin L. 2015. How good are citizen weather stations? Addressing a biased opinion. Weather 70: 75–84.
4. Bohnenstengel SI, Evans S, Clark PA, Belcher SE. 2011. Simulations of the London urban heat island. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137: 1625–1640.
5. Chandler TJ. 1965. The Climate of London. Hutchinson & Co: London, 289 pp.
6. Chapman L. 2015. Urban meteorological networks: an urban climatologists panacea? Urban Clim. News 58: 7–12.
7. Chapman L, Muller CL, Young DT, Warren EL, Grimmond CSB, Cai X-M, Ferranti EJS. 2015. The Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory: an open meteorological testbed and challenges of the smart city. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 96: 1545–1560.
8. Goodchild MF, Li L. 2012. Assuring the quality of volunteered geographic information. Spat. Stat. 1: 110–120.
9. Grawe D, Thompson HL, Salmond JA, Cai X-M, Schlünzen KH. 2013. Modelling the impact of urbanisation on regional climate in the Greater London Area. Int. J. Climatol. 33: 2388–2401.
10. Greater London Authority (GLA). 2006. London urban heat island (LUHI): a summary for decision makers. Greater London Authority, London.
11. Grimmond S. 2007. Urbanization and global environmental change: local effects of urban warming. Cities Global Environ. Change 173: 83–88.
12. Grimmond CSB, Blackett M, Best MJ, Barlow J, Baik JJ, Belcher SE, Bohnenstengel SI, Calmet I, Chen F, Dandou A, Fortuniak K, Gouvea ML, Hamdi R, Hendry M, Kawai T, Kawamoto Y, Kondo H, Krayenhoff ES, Lee S-H, Loridan T, Martilli A, Masson V, Miao S, Oleson K, Pigeon G, Porson A, Ryu Y-H, Salamanca F, Shashua-Bar L, Steeneveld G-J, Tombrou M, Voogt J, Young D, Zhang N. 2010. The international urban energy balance models comparison project: first results from phase 1. J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol. 49: 1268–1292.
13. Howard L. 1833. The Climate of London, IAUC edn. http://www.urban-climate.org/documents/LukeHoward_Climate-of-London-V1.pdf (accessed 11 November 2016), 285 pp.
14. Howe J. 2006. The rise of crowdsourcing. Wired Magazine. http://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/ (accessed 11 July 2016).
15. Jones PD, Lister DH. 2009. The urban heat island in Central London and urban-related warming trends in Central London since 1990. Weather 64: 323–327.
16. Kalnay E, Cai M. 2003. Impact of urbanisation and land-use change on climate. Nature 423: 528–531.
17. Koskinen JT, Poutiainen J, Schultz DM, Joffre S, Koistinen J, Saltikoff E, Gregow E, Turtiainen H, Dabberdt WF, Damski J, Eresmaa N, Goke S, Hyvarinen O, Jarvi L, Karppinen A, Kotro J, Kuitunen T, Kukkonen J, Kulmala M, Moisseev D, Nurmi P, Pohjola H, Pylkko P, Vesala T, Viisanen J. 2011. The Helsinki testbed: a mesoscale measurement, research and service platform. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 92: 325–342.
18. Mahoney WP, O'Sullivan JM. 2013. Realizing the potential of vehicle-based observations. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 94: 1007–1018.
19. Mass CF, Madaus LE. (2014) Surface Pressure Observations from Smartphones: A Potential Revolution for High-Resolution Weather Prediction?. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 95: 1343–1349.
20. Mavrogianni A, Davies M, Batty M, Belcher SE, Bohnenstengel SI, Carruthers D, Chalabi Z, Croxford B, Demanuele D, Evans S, Giridharan R, Hacker JN, Hamilton I, Hogg C, Hunt J, Kolokotroni M, Martin C, Milner J, Rajapaksha I, Ridley I, Steadman JP, Stocker J, Wilkinson P, Ye Z. 2011. The comfort, energy and health implications of London's urban heat island. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 32: 35–52.
21. Meier F, Fenner D, Grassmann T, Jänicke B, Otto M, Scherer D. 2015. Challenges and benefits from crowdsourced atmospheric data for urban climate research using Berlin, Germany, as testbed. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Urban Climate, Toulouse, France, 20–24 July 2015.
22. Met Office. 2015. Heatwave 1 July 2015. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting/july2015 (accessed 20 August 2015).
23. Muller CL, Chapman L, Johnston S, Kidd C, Illingworth S, Foody G, Overeem A, Leigh RR. 2015. Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric sciences: current status and future potential. Int. J. Climatol. 35: 3185–3203.
24. Muller CL, Chapman L, Young DT, Grimmond CSB, Cai X. 2013. Sensors & The City: A Review of Urban Meteorological Sensor Networks. Int. J. Climatol. 33: 1585–1600.
25. Netatmo. 2015. Netatmo personal weather station. https://www.netatmo.com/en-US/product/weather-station (accessed 17 December 2015).
26. Office for National Statistics (ONS). 2011. 2011 Census. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html (accessed 20 August 2015).
27. Oke TR. 1981. Canyon geometry and the nocturnal urban heat island: comparison of scale model and field observations. J. Climatol. 1: 237–254.
28. Oke TR. 1997. Urban environments. In The Surface Climates of Canada, Bailey WG, Oke TR, Rouse WR (eds). McGill/Queens University Press: Montreal, Canada, 400 pp.
29. Overeem A, Robinson J, Leijnse H, Steeneveld G, Horn B, Uijlenhoet R. 2013. Crowdsourcing urban air temperatures from smartphone battery temperatures. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40: 4081–4085.
30. Pasquill F, Smith FB. 1983. Atmospheric Diffusion. Ellis Horwood: Chichester, UK, 437 pp.
31. Schwarz N, Lautenbach S, Seppelt R. 2011. Exploring indicators for quantifying surface urban heat islands of European cities with MODIS land surface temperatures. Remote Sens. Environ. 115: 3175–3186.
32. Smith CL, Webb A, Levermore GJ, Lindley SJ, Beswick K. 2011. Fine-scale spatial temperature patterns across a UK conurbation. Clim. Change 109: 269–286.
33. Steeneveld GJ, Koopmans S, Heusinkveld BG, van Hove LWA, Holtslag AAM. 2011. Quantifying urban heat island effects and human comfort for cities of variable size and urban morphology in the Netherlands. J. Geophys. Res. 116: 1984–2012.
34. Stewart ID. 2011. A systematic review and scientific critique of methodology in modern urban heat island literature. Int. J. Climatol. 31: 200–217.
35. Stewart ID, Oke TR. 2012. ‘Local climate zones’ for urban temperature studies. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 93: 1879–1900.
36. Tan J, Zheng Y, Tang X, Guo C, Li L, Song G, Zhen X, Yuan D, Kalkstein AJ, Li F, Chen H. 2010. The urban heat island and its impact on heatwaves and human health in Shanghai. Int. J. Biometeorol. 54: 75–84.
37. Tomlinson CJ, Chapman L, Thornes JE, Baker CJ. 2011. Including the urban heat island in spatial heat health risk assessment strategies: a case study for Birmingham, UK. Int. J. Health Geogr. 10: 42.
38. Tomlinson C, Chapman L, Thornes J, Baker C. 2012. Derivation of Birmingham's summer surface urban heat island from MODIS satelitte images. Int. J. Climatol. 32: 214–224.
39. United Nations. 2014. Worlds urbanization prospects. The 2014 revision population database. http://www.esa.un.org/unpd/ (accessed 11 August 2015).
40. Virk G, Mylona A, Mavrogianni A, Davies M. 2015. Using the new CIBSE design summer years to assess overheating in London: effect of urban heat island on design. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 36: 115–128.
41. Watkins R, Palmer J, Kolkotroni M, Littlefair P. 2002a. The London heat island: results from summertime monitoring. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 23: 97–106.
42. Watkins R, Palmer J, Kolokotroni M, Littlefair P. 2002b. The balance of the annual heating and cooling demand within the London urban heat island. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 23: 207–213.
43. Watkins R, Palmer J, Kolokotroni M. 2007. Increased temperature and intensification of the urban heat island: implications for human comfort and urban design. Built Environ. 33: 86–96.
44. Wilby RL. 2003. Past and projected trends in London's urban heat island. Weather 58: 251–260.
45. Wolf T, McGregor G. 2013. The development of a heatwave vulnerability index for London, United Kingdom. Weather Clim. Extremes 1: 59–68.
46. Wolters D, Brandsma T. 2012. Estimating the urban heat island in residential areas in the Netherlands using observations by weather amateurs. J. Appl. Meterol. Climatol. 51: 711–721.
47. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). 2008. Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observations (WMO – No. 8). Chairperson Publication Board: Geneva, Switzerland.
48. Young DT, Chapman L, Muller CL, Grimmond CSB, Cai X. 2014. Evaluating the performance of a ‘low-cost’ wireless temperature sensor. J. Atmos. Ocean Tech. 31: 938–944.