Implementation of surface urban energy and water balance scheme (SUEWS) and solar longwave environmental irradiance geometry model (SOLWEIG) for two investigation areas in Basel

To get a better understanding of urban climates two models are evaluated for the city of Basel. Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) examines the urban energy balance (UEB) at two investigation areas – Basel Klingelbergstrasse (BKLI) and Basel Aeschenplatz (BAES) – both with an extension of 1 km2 in the urban center. Eddy covariance (EC) observations, from measurement sites BKLI and BAES, are compared with the modelled output of SUEWS. To evaluate the model output the two-dimensional parameterisation for Flux Footprint Prediction (FFP) is used to estimate the position, size and contribution of surface source areas. The second model, Solar and Longwave Environmental Irradiance Geometry (SOLWEIG), calculates the mean radiant temperature (TMRT) which is one of the most important meteorological variables to examine heat stress for people. SOLWEIG is validated against measurement data from BKLI. This master’s thesis performs a spatio-temporal analysis of the UEB and TMRT for the year 2018. The former is investigated for the entire period, the latter is analysed during a heatwave that lasted from 24 July until 8 August 2018.