Forthcoming Special Issues

23 August 2022

Decadal Anniversary of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tool

WUDAPT was initiated at IAUC’s 2012 ICUC-8 in Dublin Ireland to support environmental science-based modeling tools and studies capable of addressing exacerbation of risks challenges to urban dwellers due to climate change. At this juncture, the urban community has succeeded in generating maps of Local Climate Zones (LCZ) and lookup tables of Urban Canopy Parameters Values for urban areas on world-wide bases. A key outcome is the observation that the spatial distribution of every city is unique; therefore, intraurban variations in climate induced risks can be expected and the advances by WUDAPT by the village of urban communities can be utilized to perform urban focused model applications pertinent to addressing myriad of Anthropocene challenges. For the WUDAPT decadal anniversary, we seek both to continue recognizing advances to WUDAPT data generating methodologies and infrastructure capabilities as well as “Fit-for-Purpose” modeling applications and analyses now possible and facilitated by the advancements achieved this past decade.

These applications of LCZ and WUDAPT cover a wide spectrum, including but not limited to the following aspects:

Urban heat island mapping and assessment

Thermal comfort, heat exposure, heat-health studies

Urban weather forecast and air quality modelling

Urban surface energy balance modelling
Urban anthropogenic heat and GHG emissions

Urban canopy parameterization

Urban growth and land use change simulation

Facilitating urban geospatial data analytics

Climate-sensitive, urban sustainability planning and design

Guest editors:

Dr. Jason Ching
U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute for the Environment
[email protected]

Prof. Sarav Arunachalam
U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute for the Environment
[email protected]

Dr. Yuan Shi
U of Liverpool, Dept. Geography and Planning
[email protected]

Manuscript submission information:

Submission deadline: Dec 01, 2023

You are invited to submit your manuscript at any time before the submission deadline. For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact Managing Guest Editor: Dr. Jason Ching.

The journal’s submission platform (Editorial Manager^®) is now available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of “VSI:The WUDAPT Decade” when submitting your manuscript online.

Keywords:

Urban Canopy Parameterization
LCZ Mapping and Modeling
Inter and intra urban extreme weather forecasting
Inter-Intra Urban and Street Scale Air Quality and Exposure
Climate Sensitive Sustainable City Planning and Design
Anthropogenic Energy and GHG Emissions
UHI and SUHI analyses
Building Energy Modeling
Digital Synthetic City
WUDAPT to WRF

Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues

Interested in becoming a guest editor? Discover the benefits of guest editing a special issue and the valuable contribution that you can make to your field: https://www.elsevier.com/editors/role-of-an-editor/guest-editors

23 August 2022

Climate change impacts on public health and lives and strategies for resilient and liveable cities

This special issue aims to identify and assess direct and indirect climate change impacts on people’s health and lives, enhance the awareness and knowledge of climate-related risks and vulnerabilities among different stakeholders (e.g. policy makers, medical staff and nurses, urban planners and designers, urban managers and citizens) and thereby generate knowledge for efficient prevention, mitigation and adaptation measures.

The Earth’s Climate is changing and now it is standing at a position of 1.0-1.1 ºC above pre[1]industrial level. Climate change has already caused significant environmental, economic and social consequences, among which impacts on human health, safety and societal security are prominent. However, in the coming decades, climate-induced impacts will be more devastating, with global warming increasing to 1.5 ºC or 2.0 ºC. Under such a mega challenge, apart from climate change mitigation actions through curbing greenhouse gas emission reduction, there is an urgent need to take adaptation measures to protect human health, secure human lives and ensure societal security. On this basis, with the upward trend of urbanisation, cities are main human settlements so that adaptation for climate-resilient and liveable cities is an important theme with considerations of Good Health and Well-being (Goal 3), Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11) and Climate Actions (Goal 13) under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

However, the society has not well prepared to act for adaptation due to limited understanding of impacts of climate change on human health and safety, weak awareness and knowledge of climate-induced risks, vulnerabilities and solutions, lacking climate-related health guidelines and regulations, insufficient education, finance and advocacy of climate change adaptation, and slow actions for climate adaptation transformation and the inadequate implementation of prevention and adaptation infrastructure.

This special issue, therefore, is expected to bring together researchers who are working on topics relevant to climate-related health and prevention and adaptation for impact reduction to share their latest accomplishments and research findings. The special issue is important to inform people with a comprehensive understanding of possible issues relevant to climate[1]induced impact prevention and adaptation. The following types of papers are prospected: original research paper, reviews, short communications and perspective essays.

Guest editors:

Prof. (Dr.) Bao-Jie He, Centre for Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Cities, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, Chongqing-400045, China, [email protected]; [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Ayyoob Sharifi, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8530, Japan, [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Minal Pathak, Global Centre for Environment and Energy, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad 380009, Gujarat, India, [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Jun Yang, Urban Climate and Human Settlements Research' Lab, Jangho Architecture College, Northeastern University, Shenyang-110169, China, [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Marta Olazabal, Basque Centre for Climate Change, BC3, E-48940, Leioa, Spain, [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Andreas Matzarakis, Research Centre Human Biometeorology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79104, Germany, [email protected]

Prof. (Dr.) Yuming Guo, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, [email protected]

Special issue information:

The special issue aims to cover topics that include, but are not limited to, the below topics:

Identification and assessment of climate change induced physiological and psychological illnesses, and antisocial behaviours among the citizens.
Analysis of climate-induced impacts on practitioners in different industries (e.g. learning, studying, farming, fishing, construction, mining, tourism and logistics).
Analysis of environmental, economic, social/personal and policy reasons behind climate[1]induced impacts on health and safety.
Models of acute and chronic impacts on lives caused by various climate-induced disasters, (e.g. flooding, extreme heat, drought, airborne pollution and bushfire).
Identification of vulnerable groups, such as children, elders, pregnant women and individuals with chronic health conditions and low incomes, and climate-induced health impacts on them.
Assessment of people’s hospitalisation behaviours under climate impacts and its gaps with official data from authorities.
Estimation of climate-induced economic losses related to labour productivity reduction (e.g. absenteeism, efficiency reduction, work hour loss), tourism decline, energy and water cost, healthcare expenditure, transport delay, and job opportunity losses.
Analysis of trade-offs between investment on climate change mitigation and adaptation and climate-induced health, lives and economic losses.
Assessment of climate change induced population migration at city, provincial/state, regional, national and international scales and the subsequent impacts on economic and societal security.
Examinations of citizens’ awareness, knowledge and behaviours of addressing climate-induced impacts on health and lives.
Development of early warning and prevention interventions and enhancement of the preparedness of the public and private sectors (e.g. energy, water, transport, medical and nursery services).
Understanding of the urgency of developing climate resilient infrastructure (structural and non-structural measures) among different stakeholders (e.g. policy makers, media, managers, individuals) and the drivers and barriers to achieve it.
Lessons and experience in the development of health-centric guidelines, action plans and regulations for building capability of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Manuscript submission information:

Submission Guideline

To submit your manuscript, please go to Urban Climate at (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/urban-climate) and follow the procedures for manuscript submission. When prompted for 'Enter Manuscript Information' you can select our Special Issue ‘VSI: Climate Health Adaptation’. Author Guidelines and Manuscript Submission can be found at: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/urban-climate/2212-0955/guide-for-authors

Please mention the name of the Special Issue in your cover letter. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed following the established policies and procedures of the journal. The final papers will be selected for publication depending on the results of the peer-review process and the reviews of the Guest Editors and Editor-in-Chief.

Important dates:

Submission starts: September 1, 2022

Submission deadline: March 1, 2023

Papers will be published regularly with volume and page number after acceptance

Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues