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Introduction Thermal comfort and sleep quality are important factors in human health and well-being and can be influenced by various environmental factors such as ambient temperature, humidity, and airflow. The microclimate within a bed, or the local climate immediately surrounding a person's body while they sleep, can also have a significant impact on thermal comfort and sleep quality. Methods In this paper, we investigate the relationship between bed microclimate and thermal comfort and sleep quality in overheated bedroom conditions that are prevalent during heatwaves in the United Kingdom. Participants were screened using the Sleep Disorder Symptoms Checklist (SDS-CL)-25 and health questionnaire. 10 healthy participants were recruited in a 3-night sleep monitoring in the bedrooms of student accommodation hall at Loughborough University campus in the summer of 2022. Baseline sleep quality (in-home) was objectively and subjectively collected for all the participants before the onset of the 3-night sleep monitoring period. Subjective response (self-rating) of sleep quality, sleep satisfaction, thermal sensation, and thermal satisfaction of the room and bed microclimate was collected using Consensus Sleep Diary and survey questionnaires, twice each night (before sleeping) and once in the morning (after waking up). Data on sleeping environment conditions (both room thermal environment and bed microclimate) were collected every night throughout the experiment period. Sleep quality of participants was objectively measured using actigraphy method and mean skin temperature was measured using wireless sensors at ten locations on the body. Results Overall, sleep quality in the overheated bedroom conditions was poorer compared to the baseline sleep quality. We found that the sleep efficiency reduced, and the self-rated sleep experience was significantly poorer, compared to the baseline. Impact of room thermal conditions on sleep latency was examined, which was found to be increased significantly in the overheated conditions compared to baseline (at home). The results also highlight the statistical significance between sleep quality, skin temperature, and bed temperature. Conclusion This study highlights the impact of overheated bedroom conditions (room environment and bed microclimate) on both thermal comfort and sleep quality, and the importance of considering the bed microclimate in the design and management of sleeping environments. Support (if any) EPSRC grant number EP/S021671/1

The IPCC has emphasised the increasing impacts of climate change across multiple sectors, including cultural heritage. In response, UNESCO launched the Policy Document on Climate Action for World Heritage in 2023, offering guidance on mitigation strategies for historic sites. Cultural heritage faces risks not only from sudden catastrophic events—such as floods, droughts, and wildfires—but also from the gradual deterioration of buildings and artefacts due to shifting environmental conditions. Climate change further affects the indoor microclimate of heritage sites, including museums, archives, and libraries, which are critical to the long-term preservation of cultural assets. Heritage, including heritage buildings and both tangible and intangible heritages, are subject to changes; therefore, their conservation should be assessed to identify sustainable approaches. This study investigates how climate change and microclimate alterations impact the conservation of historic buildings without modern climate control, using the Malatestiana Library—a UNESCO Memory of the World site—as a case study. The library has preserved a remarkably stable indoor environment for centuries, without the introduction of heating, cooling, or major restorations. A monitoring campaign during the summer of 2024 assessed the effects of extreme heat events on the library’s microclimate, comparing two internal spaces to examine the attic’s role in mitigating thermal stress. Data from the 2024 heatwave are also compared with similar data collected in 2013. Results show a marked shift toward a more tropical indoor climate over the past decade, signalling new threats to the preservation of historic materials. These findings highlight the urgent need for adaptive conservation strategies to address the evolving challenges posed by climate change.

Forest canopies buffer climate extremes and promote microclimates that may function as refugia for understory species under changing climate. However, the biophysical conditions that promote and maintain microclimatic buffering and its stability through time are largely unresolved. We posited that forest microclimatic buffering is sensitive to local water balance and canopy cover, and we measured this effect during the growing season across a climate gradient in forests of the northwestern United States (US). We found that forest canopies buffer extremes of maximum temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), with biologically meaningful effect sizes. For example, during the growing season, maximum temperature and VPD under at least 50% forest canopy were 5.3°C and 1.1 kPa lower on average, respectively, compared to areas without canopy cover. Canopy buffering of temperature and vapor pressure deficit was greater at higher levels of canopy cover, and varied with water balance, implying that buffering effects are subject to changes in local hydrology. We project changes in the water balance for the mid‐21st century and predict how such changes may impact the ability of western US forests to buffer climate extremes. Our results suggest that some forests will lose their capacity to buffer climate extremes as sites become increasingly water limited. Changes in water balance combined with accelerating canopy losses due to increases in the frequency and severity of disturbance will create potentially non‐linear changes in the microclimate conditions of western US forests.

More frequent and longer duration heat waves have been observed worldwide and are recognized as a serious threat to human health and the stability of electrical grids. Past studies have identified a positive feedback between heat waves and urban heat island effects. Anthropogenic heat emissions from buildings have a crucial impact on the urban environment, and hence it is critical to understand the interactive effects of urban microclimate and building heat emissions in terms of the urban energy balance. Here we developed a coupled-simulation approach to quantify these effects, mapping urban environmental data generated by the mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) coupled to Urban Canopy Model (UCM) to urban building energy models (UBEM). We conducted a case study in the city of Los Angeles, California, during a five-day heat wave event in September 2009. We analyzed the surge in city-scale building heat emission and energy use during the extreme heat event. We first simulated the urban microclimate at a high resolution (500 m by 500 m) using WRF-UCM. We then generated grid-level building heat emission profiles and aggregated them using prototype building energy models informed by spatially disaggregated urban land use and urban building density data. The spatial patterns of anthropogenic heat discharge from the building sector were analyzed, and the quantitative relationship with weather conditions and urban land-use dynamics were assessed at the grid level. The simulation results indicate that the dispersion of anthropogenic heat from urban buildings to the urban environment increases by up to 20% on average and varies significantly, both in time and space, during the heat wave event. The heat dispersion from the air-conditioning heat rejection contributes most (86.5%) of the total waste heat from the buildings to the urban environment. We also found that the waste heat discharge in inland, dense urban districts is more sensitive to extreme events than it is in coastal or suburban areas. The generated anthropogenic heat profiles can be used in urban microclimate models to provide a more accurate estimation of urban air temperature rises during heat waves.

There are a wide range of weather data sources and modelling tools that measure and simulate urban environments. There is a current lack of guidance or best practice recommendations as to how to factor the outputs from these resources into building design. This is in part due to the inherent complexity of urban climate. In a warming climate and with increasing urbanisation, the impact of design interventions and mitigation measures needs to be understood both qualitatively and quantitatively. In acknowledgement of these challenges, this thesis aimed to investigate novel methods of integrating climate data from varying spatial and temporal scales and sources into building design through a series of case studies. The first study analysed how modelled city-scale climate data for London can be used to quantify the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Modelled data has the advantage of varying spatial scales and resolutions. Comparisons between modelled and observed data in London demonstrated how the choice of urban and rural reference point can impact the magnitude of the estimated UHI effect. The second study assessed whether observed data from urban weather stations in Birmingham and Manchester can be used to create new urban weather files. The analysis showed that the local microclimate can substantially impact measurements of point observations. New CIBSE weather files for London were released during the research, featuring an urban weather station. A third case study showed that London's UHI can now be more usefully factored into building design and how the effectiveness of design adaptations for an office varied with location. These studies focused on city-scale effects, however building performance is also influenced by its surrounding neighbourhood and the local-scale microclimate. The final case study outlined a novel methodology of incorporating microclimate modelling results into building performance simulation. The microclimate model simulated how retrofitted green and cool roofs can reduce local air temperatures in Central London. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of these neighbourhood-scale mitigation measures at reducing overheating and energy use within an office.

Current conservation policy has been shaped by the expectation that, for many species, places with suitable climate will lie outside their current range, thus leading to predictions of numerous extinctions. Here we show that the magnitude of range shifts is often overestimated as climate data used do not reflect the microclimatic conditions that many organisms experience. We model the historic (1977–1995) distributions of 244 heathland and grassland plant taxa using both macro- and microclimate data and project these distributions to present day (2003–2021). Whereas macroclimate models predicted major range shifts (median 14 km shift), microclimate models predicted localized shifts, generally of less than 1 km, into favourable microclimates that more closely match observed patterns of establishment and extirpation. Thus, improving protection of refugial populations within species’ existing geographic range may, for species living in environments exposed to sunlight, be more effective than assisted translocations and overhaul of protected area networks.The authors model historic and current distributions of grassland and heathland plants using both macro- and microclimate data. While macroclimate models predict the need for major range shifts (14 km median), microclimate models predict much smaller shifts that more closely match observed patterns.

Aim: Climatic conditions exert a strong control on the geographic distribution of many woodland-to-grassland transition zones (or 'tree lines'). Because woody plants have, in general, a weaker cold tolerance than herbaceous vegetation, their altitudinal or latitudinal limits are strongly controlled by cold sensitivity. While temperature controls on the dynamics of woodland–grassland ecotones are relatively well established, the ability of woody plants to modify their microclimate and to create habitat for seedling establishment and growth may involve a variety of processes that are still not completely understood. Here we investigate feedbacks between vegetation and microclimatic conditions in the proximity to woodland–grassland ecotones. Location: We concentrate on arctic and alpine tree lines, the transition between mangrove forests and salt marshes in coastal ecosystems, and the shift from shrubland to grassland along temperature gradients in arid landscapes. Methods: We review the major abiotic and biotic mechanisms underlying the ability of woody plants to alter the nocturnal microclimate by increasing the temperatures they are exposed to. Results: We find that in many arctic, alpine, desert and coastal landscapes the presence of trees or shrubs causes nocturnal warming thereby favouring the establishment and survival of woody plants. Main conclusion: Because of this feedback, trees and shrubs may establish in areas that would be otherwise unsuitable for their survival. Thus, in grassland–woodland transition zones both vegetation covers may be (alternative) stable states of the landscape, thereby affecting the way tree lines may migrate in response to regional and global climate change.

Life quality in urban contexts is related to several interconnected factors. Lots of innovative technologies allow for the gathering of real-time information, which is helpful for analysing and interpreting significant urban dynamics and citizens’ behaviours. The presence of people in outdoor environments, particularly for social and recreational purposes, can be considered as a qualitative indicator, giving evidence of a living environment. The relationship between urban areas and the climate context has been addressed in recent years by the scientific literature. However, these studies did not report the direct correlation between people’s presence and outdoor thermal comfort in outdoor spaces. The aim of this paper is to assess whether the presence of people in outdoor public spaces, detected through human presence sensors, can be associated with outdoor microclimatic conditions (both with on-site measurement and software simulation) and outdoor thermal comfort indicators (as physiological equivalent temperature). The question is whether there exists a direct correlation between outdoor microclimate in public spaces and people’s presence, and if a public event plays a role in changing it. The research compares on-site measurements of physics variables (e.g., air temperature) and people’s presence with outdoor microclimate maps by Envi-met. The case study, carried out in the framework of the H2020 project ROCK—Regeneration and Optimization of Cultural Heritage in Creative and Knowledge cities, focuses on two squares located in Bologna’s historic city center. The conclusions show that public events are the main deciding factor influencing square crowding; nevertheless, the study reveals a relationship between thermal comfort and the number of people.

Urban microclimate has a direct impact on the quality of life of urban residents. Therefore, research on urban microclimates has received greater attention from contemporary scholars. At present, there is a lack of quantitative summary and review of the research in the field of urban microclimate, and it is urgent to sort out its research context and evolution. The Web of Science was used as the data source, and CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to analyze the urban microclimate research from 1980 to 2020. We discussed the annual trends, research countries, research institutions, key authors, highly cited publications, hot issues, and research fronts. The study found that: (1) the number of published articles on urban microclimate has experienced three stages: initial stage—slow growth period—rapid growth period; (2) European and American countries were the first to focus on urban microclimate research, while China started late but developed rapidly; (3) the research topics of urban microclimate are thermal comfort, improvement strategies, urban street canyons, and urban heat island effect; (4) the frontiers of urban microclimate include research on urban microclimate and building energy, ecosystem services, and urban parks.