Outdoor measurements and temperature comparisons of seven monitoring stations: Preliminary studies in Curitiba, Brazil

Urbanization brings several changes to the natural environment. First, vegetation is supressed and natural scenery is modified, in order to accommodate manmade buildings and streets. Consequences bring a direct effect on fauna and flora and, due to a modified environment, with heat fluxes having a different pattern from that of the original site, on climatic features, such as on air temperature and humidity, radiative and convective heat exchanges. Thus, one of the factors that can contribute directly to the creation of urban climate is land use. The present study investigates how land use influences local temperatures in Curitiba, Brazil (25°31′S, 917 m elevation). For that purpose, seven different locations of the city were analyzed during a 1-month period by monitoring air temperature and humidity. Also, land use patterns around each location were quantified, according to five different categories established for that purpose: water area, built area, free area, paved area and green area. The monitoring of climatic data occurred in winter (June/July) of 2002. Comparisons were made regarding averages of the minimum, average and maximum temperatures for each location, qualitatively and quantitatively. As a final step of this study, formulas were developed expressing the local temperatures as a function of air temperatures, solar radiation and the wind speed of the meteorological station, which was used as reference station.