Abstract
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project has grown out of the need for better information on the form and function of cities globally. Cities are described using Local Climate Zones (LCZ), which are associated with a range of key urban climate model parameters and thus can serve as inputs to high resolution urban climate models. We refer to this as level 0 data for each city. The LCZ level 0 product is produced using freely available Landsat imagery, crowdsourced training areas from the community, and the open source SAGA software. This paper outlines the protocol by which LCZ maps generated by different members of the community are produced and evaluated. In particular, the quality assessment comprises cross-validation, review, and cross-comparison with other data sets. To date, the results from the different quality assessments show that the LCZ maps are generally of moderate quality, i.e. 50–60% overall accuracy (OA), but this is much higher when considering all built-up classes together or using weights that take the morphological and climatic similarity of certain classes into account. The training data contributed by researchers from around the world also vary in quality and in the interpretation of the landscape, which affects the final quality of the LCZ maps. The acceptable level of quality needed will depend heavily on the application of the data. However, initial modelling studies that use the level 0 products as inputs showed improved performance in simulating the urban climate when replacing the default surface descriptions with the WUDAPT level 0 data. This is also promising for the application of level 0 data in regional and global climate and weather models and supports the assumption that the current level 0 products are already of sufficient quality for certain applications. Moreover, there are various ongoing developments to improve the methods used to produce LCZ maps and their accuracy.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 24-45 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Urban Climate |
| Volume | 27 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2019 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Urban Studies
- Atmospheric Science
Cite this
Generating WUDAPT Level 0 data – Current status of production and evaluation. / Bechtel, Benjamin; Alexander, Paul J.; Beck, Christoph; Böhner, Jürgen; Brousse, Oscar; Ching, Jason; Demuzere, Matthias; Fonte, Cidália; Gál, Tamás; Hidalgo, Julia; Hoffmann, Peter; Middel, Ariane; Mills, Gerald; Ren, Chao; See, Linda; Sismanidis, Panagiotis; Verdonck, Marie Leen; Xu, Guang; Xu, Yong.
In: Urban Climate, Vol. 27, 03.2019, p. 24-45.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Generating WUDAPT Level 0 data – Current status of production and evaluation
AU - Bechtel, Benjamin
AU - Alexander, Paul J.
AU - Beck, Christoph
AU - Böhner, Jürgen
AU - Brousse, Oscar
AU - Ching, Jason
AU - Demuzere, Matthias
AU - Fonte, Cidália
AU - Gál, Tamás
AU - Hidalgo, Julia
AU - Hoffmann, Peter
AU - Middel, Ariane
AU - Mills, Gerald
AU - Ren, Chao
AU - See, Linda
AU - Sismanidis, Panagiotis
AU - Verdonck, Marie Leen
AU - Xu, Guang
AU - Xu, Yong
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project has grown out of the need for better information on the form and function of cities globally. Cities are described using Local Climate Zones (LCZ), which are associated with a range of key urban climate model parameters and thus can serve as inputs to high resolution urban climate models. We refer to this as level 0 data for each city. The LCZ level 0 product is produced using freely available Landsat imagery, crowdsourced training areas from the community, and the open source SAGA software. This paper outlines the protocol by which LCZ maps generated by different members of the community are produced and evaluated. In particular, the quality assessment comprises cross-validation, review, and cross-comparison with other data sets. To date, the results from the different quality assessments show that the LCZ maps are generally of moderate quality, i.e. 50–60% overall accuracy (OA), but this is much higher when considering all built-up classes together or using weights that take the morphological and climatic similarity of certain classes into account. The training data contributed by researchers from around the world also vary in quality and in the interpretation of the landscape, which affects the final quality of the LCZ maps. The acceptable level of quality needed will depend heavily on the application of the data. However, initial modelling studies that use the level 0 products as inputs showed improved performance in simulating the urban climate when replacing the default surface descriptions with the WUDAPT level 0 data. This is also promising for the application of level 0 data in regional and global climate and weather models and supports the assumption that the current level 0 products are already of sufficient quality for certain applications. Moreover, there are various ongoing developments to improve the methods used to produce LCZ maps and their accuracy.
AB - The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project has grown out of the need for better information on the form and function of cities globally. Cities are described using Local Climate Zones (LCZ), which are associated with a range of key urban climate model parameters and thus can serve as inputs to high resolution urban climate models. We refer to this as level 0 data for each city. The LCZ level 0 product is produced using freely available Landsat imagery, crowdsourced training areas from the community, and the open source SAGA software. This paper outlines the protocol by which LCZ maps generated by different members of the community are produced and evaluated. In particular, the quality assessment comprises cross-validation, review, and cross-comparison with other data sets. To date, the results from the different quality assessments show that the LCZ maps are generally of moderate quality, i.e. 50–60% overall accuracy (OA), but this is much higher when considering all built-up classes together or using weights that take the morphological and climatic similarity of certain classes into account. The training data contributed by researchers from around the world also vary in quality and in the interpretation of the landscape, which affects the final quality of the LCZ maps. The acceptable level of quality needed will depend heavily on the application of the data. However, initial modelling studies that use the level 0 products as inputs showed improved performance in simulating the urban climate when replacing the default surface descriptions with the WUDAPT level 0 data. This is also promising for the application of level 0 data in regional and global climate and weather models and supports the assumption that the current level 0 products are already of sufficient quality for certain applications. Moreover, there are various ongoing developments to improve the methods used to produce LCZ maps and their accuracy.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.uclim.2018.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.uclim.2018.10.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85056336989
VL - 27
SP - 24
EP - 45
JO - Urban Climate
JF - Urban Climate
SN - 2212-0955
ER -