Explore the accuracy of the pedestrian level temperature estimated by the combination of LCZ with WRF urban canopy model through the microclimate measurement network

Due to the urban heat island effect getting more evident in the cities in Taiwan, the urban climate has become an essential factor in urban development. Taiwan is located on the border of tropical and subtropical climate zones, the climate condition is hot and humid, and the city shows high-density development. The dense urban development has increased the heat storage capacity of the ground and buildings. However, if only apply the climate stations set by the Central Meteorological Bureau to observe the climate data, the predicted results would differ from the actual urban climate conditions due to the small number of these stations and the too far distance between them. Therefore, this study employs the Local Climate Zone (LCZ), which can classify the land features by considering both land use and land cover and can be freely generated from satellite images. The LCZ classification method can view the type of the city through the height and density of obstacles. This study also combines the urban canopy model (UCM) of the mesoscale climate prediction model Weather Research and Forecasts (WRF). This approach can calculate vertical and horizontal planes of the city, such as building volume, road width, the influence of streets and roofs, roof heat capacity, building wall heat capacity, etc., to predict the climatic conditions in different lands in the study area. Simultaneously, to understand the actual distribution of urban climate more accurately, this study used the microclimate measurement network built in the research area to produce pedestrian-level temperature distribution and compared the estimated results with the actual measured values for urban climate assessment. This study can understand the cause of urban heat islands and assist urban planners in more appropriately formulate heat island mitigation strategies in different regions.