Sky View Factor Measurements in Support of Local Climate Zone Classification

Abstract

Increasing urbanization coupled with threats from global climate change are driving research innovations that seek to inform sustainability of urban socio-ecological systems. The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification system developed by Stewart and Oke (2012) provides a framework for examining relationships between urban morphology and temperature, as well as a standardized approach to facilitate data integration from around the globe. In addition to urban heat island studies, parameters used to define LCZs are increasingly applied in related fields, such as modeling fine-scale variations in urban air quality (Badach et al., 2020).