Absolute moisture content in mid-latitude urban canopy layer, part 2 : results from Szeged, Hungary

This study gives a comprehensive picture on the air humidity observation and mapping in urban canopy layer in Szeged, Hungary, analyzing three-year long vapor pressure dataset (e) calculated from observations of a 22-station urban network. The analysis was divided into two directions, namely the urban-rural and intra-urban ones where the latter was partly based on the local climate zone approach. (i) The general features of the annual and diurnal variations of urban-rural absolute humidity difference in cities with mid-latitude climates are also detectable in the case of Szeged. (ii) In the annual and seasonal e means there is no clear zone sequence that would follow the differences in the compactness or building height of the zones and even the built-up versus land cover distinction. (iii) The highest e values and their differences among stations appear in summer, while the lowest ones in winter and the values of transitional seasons are between them. In certain cases the intra-zone differences can exceed the inter-zone ones since the effect of microscale environment is essential. The decisive factors are the per meability of the surface and the vegetation cover. (iv) The diurnal course of the e pattern in normalized 4-hour time steps does not show a regular shape, the patterns are mosaic-like: in all time steps the driest and wettest areas are mainly in the north-western and south-eastern parts, respectively

Absolute moisture content in mid-latitude urban canopy layer, part 1 : a literature review

This part of the study on absolute moisture content in the mid-latitude urban canopy layer first gives a comparison on intra-urban relative and absolute humidity patterns showing an example based on a long dataset. The comparison clearly demonstrates the usefulness of the utilization of absolute measure opposite to the temperature dependent relative one. This supports the earlier statements found in the literature albeit these statements are based on only case studies or short datasets. Then a short overview follows which presents the main results of studies about urban absolute moisture content. These studies focused mainly on urban-rural and less on intra-urban humidity differences. The scale differences are used for the grouping of studies based on the number of available measurement sites as well as their spatial distribution and density in the investigated urban regions

Urban climate in central european cities and global climate change

Urban areas are among those most endangered with the potential global climate changes. The studies concerning the impact of global changes on local climate of cities are of a high significance for the urban inhabitants' health and wellbeing. This paper is the final report of a project (Urban climate in Central European cities and global climate change) with the aim to raise the public awareness on those issues in five Central European cities: Szeged (Hungary), Brno (Czech Republic), Bratislava (Slovakia), Kraków (Poland) and Vienna (Austria). Within the project, complex data concerning local geomorphological features, land use and long-term climatological data were used to perform the climate modelling analyses using the model MUKLIMO_3 provided by the German Weather Service (DWD)