Urban land planning: The role of a Master Plan in influencing local temperatures

Land use planning (LUP) is central for managing issues related to climatic variation in urban environments. However, Master Plans (MPs) usually do not include climatic aspects, and few studies have addressed climate change at the urban scale, especially in developing countries. This paper proposes a framework with ten categories for assessment of climatic variation in urban LUP. Each category comprises attributes that describe a complex of relationships in influencing local temperature variations. They are analyzed for the case of the Master Plan of Porto Alegre (MPPA), the Southernmost metropolis of Brazil. It is concluded that the MPPA is strongly grounded in climate-related land and zoning coordination, but exhibits weaknesses in building, cartographical and social aspects considered synergistically relevant for tackling problems related to urban climate variation. Furthermore, the MPPA does not contain provisions related to monitoring of local climate and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and it is ineffective for improving energy efficiency. Specific MPPA failures stemming from these weaknesses include: an increase of 21.79% in the city's urbanized area from 1986 to 2011 to accommodate a similar increase in population, with significant horizontal sprawl; average temperature rise of 0.392. °C from 1991-2000 to 2001-2010, with statistically significant increases in temperature found since 1931; significant vehicle traffic increases, especially since 2007. From these findings, it is possible to conclude that the MPPA does not offer answers to all the imbalances related to land use, and therefore gives insufficient support to tackle the issue of rising temperatures

Composition of wet deposition in Kaynarca, Turkey

In this work, composition of wet deposition in Kaynarca, Turkey is studied by collecting precipitation samples during more than a 2-year period. August 1993-November 1995. Concentrations of the main cations Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, NH4+ and the main anions Cl-, NO3- and SO4(2-) together with pH were studied. The average pH value at Kaynarca was near neutral, 5.59. Results indicated that SO4(2-) concentration in precipitation was very high, as was Ca2+, neutralizing the acidity. Acidic wet deposition samples were generally obtained in winter. Enrichment factors for sea and soil indicate the strong effects of sea and soil, specifically limestone on the composition of precipitation. Non-sea salt fractions of SO4(2-) were found to range from 0.955 to 0.980, showing the effect of non-sea sources, especially emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, on the pH of samples. Trajectory analysis showed that cyclones originating from northwestern, central and eastern parts of Europe have generally high sulfate and nitrate concentrations and low pH

A portable borehole temperature logging system using the four-wire resistance method

High-quality temperature-depth information from boreholes with a depth of 100 m or more is used in geothermal studies and in studies of climate change. Electrical wireline tools with thermistor sensors are capable of measuring borehole temperatures with millikelvin resolution. The use of a surface readout mode allows analysis of the thermally conductive state of a borehole, which is especially important for climatic and regional heat flow studies. In this study we describe the design of a portable temperature logging tool that uses the four-wire resistance measurement method. The four-wire method enables the elimination of cable resistance effects, thus allowing millikelvin resolution of temperature data at depth. A preliminary two-wire model of the system is also described. The portability of the tool enables one to collect data from boreholes down to 300 m, even in locations with limited accessibility