Assessment of Microclimatic conditions of St. Thomas University forest

Urban meteorology and biometeorology have become very important fields nowadays due to the high rate of urbanization worldwide. The load created within mega-urban centers is leading to the proliferation of many respiratory problems as well as a deterioration of green areas. Motivated by this situation this project is aimed at assessing the microclimatic conditions of St. Thomas University forest and evaluates the impact of canopy on the distribution on weather parameters within and around green areas as well as the extent of dispersal of pollutants from the Palmetto Expressway as a result of automobile exhausts. Observations from both, in campus Automated Weather Station (AWS) running in partnership with Earth-Network (Weatherbug) and mobile sensors (Xplorer from PASCO) are put together and mapped based on GIS information for points of measurements. The statistical analysis was done through the software R-Studio and packages for data visualization. As a result, a full characterization of soil and atmospheric conditions within the forest was done.