Where to place? Strategic siting of urban climate monitoring stations using Local Climate Zones and city-scale PALM modeling
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The increasing heat load for the population in urban areas raises the need for comprehensive monitoring networks to understand local climate variations and to support municipalities with their climate adaptation strategies. However, identifying optimal locations for monitoring stations remains challenging. Therefore, this study presents a quantitative siting method identifying the most suitable locations for an urban meteorological monitoring network in the city of Linz, Austria. The approach combines the concept of Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification with high-resolution urban climate modeling using PALM. Our methodology integrates static LCZ information with dynamic meteorological data simulated with PALM at 10 m spatial resolution, representing a typical summer day under autochthonous weather conditions. To ensure that spatial variability of the urban climate is captured in future measurements across and within LCZ, six meteorological criteria were applied for site selection. A percentile-based method was used to define temperature thresholds and solar exposure patterns, enabling the identification of areas with different thermal conditions within one LCZ. The combination of LCZ and PALM data together with possible mounting locations led to strategically placed 54 measurement sites distributed across LCZ classes in the city. Temperature time series from the modeled data at selected locations demonstrate the future network's ability to capture urban climate variability, including varying diurnal patterns and daily extremes across different microclimates and urban structures. Thus, the study effectively combines the LCZ representativeness with the spatial detail of high-resolution modeling, providing a transferable framework for quantitative site selection of urban climate monitoring networks. • Quantitative method for locating a meteorological monitoring network. • Combining LCZ and PALM allows for a systematic criteria-based siting approach. • 54 monitoring sites suggested focusing on heat in the city. • Site selection reflects urban microclimate diversity and representativeness. • Transferability to other cities through application of open-source models.
Source: Urban Climate
Institution: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
Language: English
Topic: Urban Heat Island Mitigation
Subfield: Environmental Engineering
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,690
OpenAlex ID: W7125413946