The confluence of circular economy and carbon emission mitigation strategies has catalyzed the emergence of a concept called the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE). This study introduces a novel CCE evaluation framework targeting urban areas and employs Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) to bolster transparency and interpretability. Through the application of big data mining techniques, key indicators

This study projects future variations in monthly precipitation and average temperature in major cities of Pakistan. It constructs Multi-Model Ensembles (MMEs) by selecting 16 General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). In this process, it utilizes an Artificial Neural Network-based statistical downscaling approach. The performance of these models

Urban thermal comfort can be improved by trees. A better understanding of the effects of trees on urban climate in streets can provide better guidelines on the optimized use of vegetation in cities to moderate temperatures. In this study, we explore and quantify both improvement and deterioration of urban thermal comfort due to street trees, modeled based on a common street tree in Montreal, by varying

Cycling can improve health, yet cyclists in cities may be exposed to hazardous conditions and have limited exposure to nature and its benefits. The purpose of this study was to measure and compare environmental exposures of urban cyclists on a vegetated, gravel trail route separated from cars and a fully paved route on local roads. In September 2021 in Austin, Texas, US, we cycled on the trail and

Many studies have demonstrated the regulatory function of urban blue-green spaces on urban climates, particularly by mitigating Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects and modulating environmental factors that affect microclimate and human thermal comfort. Yet, few have examined in detail the underlying mechanisms across multiple dimensions and scales. This study conducted field surveys along the four waterfront

Sulfate (SO42−) aerosols, a predominant chemical constituent of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), wield profound influences on urban atmospheric environments, climate dynamics, and public health. While advancements have been made in understanding the formation mechanisms of ground-level SO42−, the scarcity of long-term, continuous vertical measurements has limited our understanding of SO42− production

We investigated the interaction between thermal and gustatory environments in three outdoor spaces in China's cold region: an open square (OS), a tree-shaded space (TS), and a landscape pavilion (LP). Three gustatory stimuli (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme A. Gray, Prunus persica ‘Compressa’, and Prunus avium ‘Mei Zao’) and a control group (no stimulus) were used. The electroencephalograms

Climate sensitive designs have been implemented recently in science to fill the niche of developing scientific tools to help mitigating urban heat island effects. A model capable of identifying hot and cool spots and testing adaptation and mitigation strategies to form recommendations for policy makers is in high demand. We present a novel two-step validation approach using 1) absolute comparison and

Climate change-related impacts have recently increased. Extreme precipitation and heat events are gaining attention because of their catastrophic damage, unpredictability and large spatial reach. Assessing such catastrophic events in a densely populated country such as India is critical because it exposes a large population to risk. This study is based on the approach that can be adopted to examine

Nitrous acid (HONO) significantly affects atmospheric oxidation ability by generating hydroxyl radicals (·OH). A year-long observational study (2017–2018) was conducted in a central plain city with ammonia-rich conditions and high PM2.5 pollution. The study monitored HONO concentrations across different seasons to assess the seasonal impacts of PM2.5 and NH3 on HONO formation via heterogeneous conversion

Maintaining an equilibrium between the rapid pace of urbanisation and the demand for urban ecological well-being amid climate change remains a global challenge. This study integrates machine learning and geospatial techniques with biophysical models to investigate the changes in ecosystem regulating services (ERS), such as carbon stock and climate regulation, in cities of the Rainforest (Akure and

Climate change is one of the prime concerns in the contemporary world, mainly due to the global proliferation of urban areas. This leads to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where the temperature of the city core is warmer than its non-urban surroundings and is known to affect inhabitants' lives. To better understand the phenomenon, Remote Sensing has proved to be a valuable tool for studying the

Rapidly urbanizing megacities face multiple challenges such as heat island effect and ecological degradation. High-precision land surface temperature (LST) data is critical for optimizing urban planning and environmental management. However, the spatial resolution of LST data obtained by satellite alone is low, which has certain limitations in urban-scale analysis. Based on ECMWF ERA5-Land reanalysis

Studies on urban climate are important to this rapidly urbanizing world as they play a role in monitoring the quality of life in urban areas. Urban meteorological networks (UMNs) have thus emerged in recent decades to collect data for urban climate research worldwide. Government involvement in an UMN project is beneficial to standardizing network configurations, maintaining stations durability, striking

Nowadays, the comfort conditions need to be assured throughout buildings lifetime. The building stock is not designed to cope with the climate variations expected in the coming decades. In this context, the climate classification used by countries to define the climate differences among the various areas of the country is of great relevance. This study analyses the climate classification of Italy under

The main factor contributing to the increasing thermal environment risk is rapid urbanization; therefore, to improve the thermal environment and enhance the sustainability of cities to ensure that they can adapt to climate change, it is crucial to analyze the spatial structure characteristics of the thermal environment from the perspective of networks. This study constructed, optimized, and evaluated

Artificial intelligence (AI) policy refers to a series of regulations, strategies and measures formulated by governments, international organizations or industry bodies to guide the research, development, deployment and application of AI. In recent years, the potential of AI policy in pollution abatement has received widespread attention. In this study, we use China's National New Generation Artificial

With global warming and aging, more attention should be paid to outdoor thermal comfort of the elderly in developing countries. Metabolism of the elderly, which affects thermal perception, is always slower than young population, especially in hot humid climate. Therefore, meteorological measurements coupled with thermal questionnaire surveys were collected to investigate outdoor thermal comfort of

The impacts of heat stress and air pollution are both related to severe health risks for citizens. Complexity and heterogeneity of urban systems can lead to some residents being more exposed than others, possibly exacerbating social inequalities. Whilst the impacts of heath stress and air pollution on population health are known, their relationship with socioeconomic vulnerability has been less investigated

Climate change adaptation is crucial for urban resilience, particularly in developing countries vulnerable to extreme weather. In Turkey, metropolitan municipalities, housing 80 % of the population, have voluntarily developed Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs) to address mitigation and adaptation challenges, despite the lack of a legal mandate. This study aims to classify the LCCAP types prepared

Urban blocks are the fundamental units of cities. Understanding the driving factors of urban thermal environments is crucial for environmental protection. Current research focuses more on natural factors like vegetation and land cover rather than social factors such as population activity and building function. Recent studies have started to quantify social factors, including building height, but the

Analysis of the evolution of urban thermal environment spatial networks can effectively assess the development patterns of the urban heat island effect, which is important for sustainable urban development. We employed a research framework of “heat sources - thermal resistance surfaces - thermal environment spatial network “ to conduct our experiments. Particularly, by focusing on the issue of resistance

MESO-scale rain gauge NETwork (MESONET) is a dense rain gauge network established across Mumbai. This work investigates the rainstorms speed and direction, using MESONET data during the monsoon (June–September) in 2020–2022. Rainstorm mean speed and direction are derived using the rainfall time series data i.e., peak of rainfall (Tp), centroid of hyetograph (Tc), and 50 % of the rainfall data (Tm)

This research explores the impact of de-sealing a 64 m2 patch (Oasis) after introducing indigenous vegetation, four trees and herbaceous species, on local microclimate conditions in an urban context. Over two years, microclimate variables were monitored and thermal comfort was evaluated with the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). The Oasis experienced a noticeable reduction in Ts compared to surrounding

In the past decade, frequent large-scale regional pollution events have occurred in the key economic and population centers of eastern China, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Although local emissions are important contributors, the transport processes and driving mechanisms of these events are still poorly understood. This study comprehensively analyzes long-term

Urban forests play a crucial role in regulating air pollutants, but their net impact on air quality remains a subject of debate. To address this issue, this study conducted observations of PM2.5 and SO2 concentrations vertically and horizontally above forests and streets using an unmanned aerial vehicle system during low-pollution and high-pollution days. The vertical air purification by urban forests

The dynamics of water-soluble inorganic ions in particulate matter (PM) in Qinhuangdao (1 km from the sea) are studied, with a focus on particle size association and the influence of marine conditions. In PM2.5, sulfate (SO42−) and nitrate (NO3−) were the predominant ions, while in PM2.5−10, NO3− concentrations were substantially higher than sulphate, and exceeded those in PM2.5. Marine atmosphere

Tropospheric ozone has significant impacts on human health, atmospheric oxidizing capacity and global climate change. Despite stringent control measures, summer ozone pollution in the arid and semi-arid regions of China has increased. The average ozone (90th percentile of the daily maximum 8-h sliding average) concentration in Lanzhou increased by 53 μg m−3 from 2013 to 2021. The primary factors driving

In the Amazon, the expansion of urbanization and industrialization may be increasing the levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in densely populated areas. The objectives of this study were to determine the total, bioavailable, and bioaccessible concentrations of PTEs, as well as to assess their environmental and human health risks in soil and road dust in the metropolitan region of Belém (MRB)

Pavement watering is an effective evaporative cooling strategy for alleviating the heat of pavements, but its effectiveness on impermeable pavements in hot and humid areas needs to be verified. This study both qualitatively and quantitatively investigated the effect of pavement watering on the thermal environment above an impermeable pavement in Guangzhou. The results showed that pavement watering

Air quality degradation poses significant risks to human health and contributes to climate change. Unplanned urbanization, rapid population growth, reduced vegetation cover, and emissions from industries and vehicles, particularly in urban areas, have led to a considerable increase in air pollutants and emission sources which has greatly increased the prevalence of respiratory disease. For estimating

Urban ventilation corridors (UVCs) play a key role in promoting cold air circulation and mitigating the urban heat island effect. This study explores methods to identify UVCs in coastal hilly cities and assess their cooling effects, using Shenzhen as a case study. Based on prevailing wind direction variations, the study area was divided into 14 local ventilation zones. The inverse of the current values

Rapid urbanization intensifies the urban heat island (UHI) effect and increases the frequency of extreme heat events, posing significant risks to urban environments and residents' well-being. While previous research has demonstrated that urban nature, particularly urban green spaces (UGS) and urban blue spaces (UBS), helps mitigate UHI, there is still a limited understanding of the spatiotemporal relationships

Although many studies have examined the effects of temperature or humidity on influenza, few studies investigated other meteorological factors, let alone their joint effects. This study aimed to investigate the joint effects of meteorological factors on influenza in China and identified main factors contributing to the joint effect.

Black carbon (BC) is a potent climate forcer that has severe effects on air quality and human health. This study investigates black carbon dynamics during Diwali 2023 in Agra, a city in the heavily polluted Indo-Gangetic Basin. Using an integrated approach that includes AE-33 Aethalometer, Air Q+ model, HYSPLIT back trajectory models, and FESEM-EDX analysis, the study monitors BC concentrations, health

Based on the relevance of considering climate change in urban centers, especially in tropical cities affected by extreme events such as heat waves and droughts, such as Cuiabá-MT-Brazil, the aim of this research was to simulate future UHI scenarios and assess the impact of possible changes in urban morphology on micro-scale warming. The results showed that, in terms of microclimate, during the period

As the global urban population grows, city dwellers are increasingly exposed to outdoor thermal conditions that threaten their well-being in a warming climate. In this study, we characterized the heat stress and addressed its mitigation from a climate service perspective using a mid-sized city as case study. We simulated mean radiant temperature to assess the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI)

Accurate representation of urban areas in weather and climate models is crucial for simulating interactions between urban surfaces and the atmospheric boundary layer, especially in high-resolution regional models that resolve deep convection. However, many continental-scale simulations use simplified urban parameterizations, raising questions about their ability to reproduce urban hydroclimate. This

Street trees and grass are important elements for cooling cities, yet where and how to distribute them at the neighbourhood scale is still unclear. This study aims to identify effective street tree and grass design scenarios to maximise cooling in European neighbourhoods with temperate climate. 32 design scenarios were developed by combining urban design parameters of vegetation type, coverage, and

Although countermeasures against nocturnal urban heat islands that cause health hazards are required, few measures with significant cooling potential at night are known. An air-source heat-pump water heater (HPWH) absorbs heat from the atmosphere to produce hot water and simultaneously emits a cold exhaust. The mass deployment of HPWHs is expected to contribute considerably to the improvement of urban

Urban traffic-released ultra-fine particles (UFPs) significantly threats human health due to their distinctive composition/size and high toxicity. The roadside vegetation has potential to effectively purify UFPs. Optimal urban vegetation design relies on reliable prediction of UFPs motion and purification. The existing models mainly focused on vegetation removal of PM2.5/PM10, while less attention

This study presents a multi-dimensional approach to assess urban climate risks under the dual pressures of climate change and land-use transformations, with a focus on the city of Shanghai. By integrating climate, land-use, and socio-economic factors, our approach provides a comprehensive framework to evaluate the potential impacts of future climate and land-use scenarios on urban environments. Utilizing

While numerous thermal comfort models have been developed to predict human thermal comfort levels in outdoor areas under varying weather conditions, these indexes are generally designed for adults. To assess the suitability of thermal comfort models, the Universal Thermal Climate Index and a multiple linear regression (MLR) model based on Predicted Mean Vote factors, to predict children's outdoor thermal

Global environmental stability is significantly impacted by climate change, with an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events posing substantial risks to infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of extreme precipitation events in Maryland is provided, utilizing the latest CMIP6 models to assess historical (1951–2022) trends and project

Urban green space is associated with cognitive functions, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear due to limited research. Given the diverse forms of green space, which lead to distinct health effects, it is essential to differentiate between types of green space. In this review, we propose a novel conceptual framework categorizing three primary effects of green space on cognitive function: functional

Urban heat island (UHI) effect, exacerbated by global warming, poses significant public health threats and socioeconomic damages. Previous UHI studies have largely overlooked thermal heterogeneity within urban areas, as existing research on urban morphology and intra-city thermal variability is mostly limited to the city scale due to the difficulty of acquiring detailed urban morphology data on a larger

With the increasing frequency of storm surges due to extreme weather, coastal protection and emergency strategies have become more critical than ever. A key element in evaluating these measures is the simulation of storm-induced flooding. As both optimization and emergency response require rapid simulations, achieving high computational efficiency is essential. In this study, a geospatial-based framework

The greenhouse effect, which leads to global warming and climate change, is a significant concern for developing countries like Bangladesh due to its direct and substantial impacts on various sectors of society and the economy. This study focuses on greenhouse gases (GHGs) like methane (CH₄), ozone (O₃), and water vapor (WV) and their trend patterns across the four most industrialized cities in Bangladesh

Men and women's choice and ability to respond to climate change is shaped by multiple, intersecting factors, including gender roles, power dynamics, socio-economic variables, psychological processes, and systemic inequalities. This study is the first to examine gendered differences in climate change adaptation intentions in urban Pakistan, using survey data from 552 men and women in two urban towns

Urban outdoor air pollution poses significant threats to public health, underscoring the need for accurate pollutant concentration estimation. This study presents an innovative end-to-end pollutant prediction model (E2EPPM) that directly predicts pollutant levels from street-level imagery. To the best of our knowledge, the model is the first to achieve pollutant concentration estimation at the street

Climate neutral cities require climate mitigation strategies such as albedo manipulation approaches. This could be a low-cost approach able to reach short term results while working on reducing emissions on the long term. Currently, only few studies were carried out to investigate the potentiality of albedo changes to effectively reduce radiative forcing (RF) at city scale. This study makes use of

With industrialization and urbanization, intense human activities are intensifying the complexity and dynamics of air quality variations, presenting significant challenges to prediction efforts. In this research, an enhanced machine learning model was proposed for forecasting urban air quality, based on integrating data de-noising, an optimized decomposition method, and error adaptive reduction into

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is crucial to global nitrogen cycles, yet its spatiotemporal dynamics and sensitivity to environmental perturbations in large reservoir remain inadequately understood. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19, a significant environmental health event, on wet nitrogen deposition in Danjiangkou Reservoir, China. From 2018 to 2021, we monitored total nitrogen (TN)

Urban green spaces play a crucial role in mitigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect by cooling surface temperatures. This study used Landsat 8 data and urban green space surveys, applying Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) and Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) models to analyze how green space morphology and vegetation composition influence land surface temperature (LST) across seasons. Results show

Roadside greening is gaining attention because it can mitigate street air pollution. To investigate the effects of greening configurations along bicycle lanes and sidewalks on exposure to traffic-related particulate matter (PM), we monitored in situ concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, PM1) in a shallow street canyon in Xi'an, China, and numerically simulated the people's exposure at common street greening

The radiative schemes in urban canopy models are typically based on the two-dimensional street canyon model, which cannot fully capture the three-dimensional geometries in East Asia cities. This study addresses this limitation by parameterizing radiative flux by three-dimensional urban morphology parameters: frontal area density (λf) and plan area density (λp). The parameterization is supported by

Impermeable surfaces such as roofs play a key role in urban pluvial floods due to the rapid transfer of rainfall to drainage networks, contributing to system overloading. This study proposes and evaluates different modelling strategies within large-scale urban drainage models, exploring simplified approaches for roof geometry and roof-to-manhole connections. The results indicate that, regardless of

This paper presents an analysis of the employment and residential functions of Xi'an City People's Stadium and the factors influencing ambient fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations. The spatial distribution of employment and home locations in Xi'an extends to the surrounding in the form of “employment-mixed-residential-mixed”. Based on this result, the PM2.5 concentration data, environmental factors

Typhoon-induced wind hazards are uncertain and extreme within urban neighborhoods at the pedestrian level. Previous studies lacked of effective assessment methods. In this study, typhoon Mui-fa (2022) event over Lujiazui Financial Center in Shanghai was simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the Parallelized Large-Eddy Simulation Model (PALM), then the pedestrian

Urbanization significantly impacts the local climate, leading to the urban climate effect. This study analyzed urban climate phenomena like urban heat islands (UHI), urban wet islands (UWI), urban dry islands (UDI), and urban wind-blocking (UW) in China. The research across 17 provinces showed consistent patterns of UHI, UWI, and UDI, with more pronounced effects in northern regions. The effects were