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Climate in cities

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Unit 2:
Urban climate

Taking urban and non-urban areas into consideration the differences in the amount of solar radiation and its changes, in heat and water balance can be easily seen.
 

Urban atmosphere contains lots of pollution consisting of solid particles. Together with strongly modified, mostly artificial urban surface, they significantly change the radiation balance in a city, in comparison with non-urban areas. The radiation balance and the heat balance are closely correlated with each other. The heat balance of an urban area is more complex due to the volume of buildings. Thus, the heat balance for an urban area must include heat exchange by the conduction in ground, streets, walls of the buildings as well as the anthropogenic heat delivered to the atmosphere mainly during combustion of fossil fuels. In a city the water balance consists of the same elements, but their proportions are significantly different. In the urban areas, the sums of precipitation are higher than in non-urban areas.
The urban climate may have negative effect on people, first of all by the influence of air pollution and noise. Especially air urban pollution caused by transportation is most harmful for people. The emission of air pollution worsens sanitary conditions of a city, as it causes acid rains, decreases the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground. To reduce the negative impact of urban climate on people, the share of parks and lawns in urban areas should be increased.

 
 
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