IACM Colloquium
Speaker:
Professor Matthias Roth
Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
Title:
(Urban) climate change in cities: the case of Singapore
Abstract:
Cites in warm or hot regions are strongly affected by the urban heat island (UHI) which increases ambient outdoor temperature and decreases outdoor thermal comfort to possibly intolerable levels. The situation is exacerbated in equatorial/wet climates, where high day- and nighttime air temperature in combination with the high humidity characteristic of the wet tropics, present a particularly challenging living environment for urban residents. Such additional warming generated by the UHI on top of anthropogenic global warming is clearly undesirable. Singapore, located in the tropics next to the equator, is no exception to this.
Rapid growth of the city has generated a nocturnal UHI intensity which has doubled in magnitude since 1965; at the same time the spatial extent of the nocturnal UHI has also expanded to accommodate a growing population and expanding industries, often at the expense of vegetated areas. Local growth and development aspirations are therefore likely responsible for a local temperature increase which is about twice that of the global temperature trend over land. Given the homemade nature of this local urban climate change, options exist to mitigate some of the unwanted warming, irrespective of (in)action at the global level regarding anthropogenic global warming. This presentation demonstrates how Singapore has become a hot “little red dot” and introduces some observational and modelling work directed at better understanding the local urban climate to support adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Short Bio:
Matthias Roth is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. He holds a Diploma from ETH, Zurich
(Switzerland) as well as MSc and PhD degrees from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada), all in Physical Geography. His research examines how land-use changes affect local climates with a particular focus on the climate of cities and the role they play in climate change. As an experimental researcher he has conducted observations of the urban heat islands, energy balance, carbon dioxide fluxes and fundamental turbulence properties in cities located in North America, Europe and Asia. Besides fundamental aspects of the surface-atmosphere exchanges, he is increasingly interested in the application of such knowledge to the climate-sensitive design of cities.
He is Past President of the International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC), Associate Editor of the International Journal of Climatology and a member of the editorial boards of Urban Climate and Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography.
Time, Date & Location:
15:00, Thursday 5th May 2022 @ Payatakes Room (main building)
Zoom Info:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87988523828?pwd=YWFrRmM2NjhYeGpiQWxnRzBRR0NjUT09
Meeting ID: 879 8852 3828
Passcode: 340173