Shevchenko O. Theoretical and methodological foundations of complex studies of urban-meteorological transformations in cities.

The thesis substantiates the theoretical and methodological principles of complex studies of urban meteorological transformations in cities. This has enabled to solve an important scientific and practical problem to develop an algorithm of complex urban meteorological evaluation, which can provide the basis for the preparation of scientifically based recommendations aimed at improving the comfort of the city. The results of the latest meteorological studies of urban areas are systematized in this work, the concept of modern urban meteorology as applied science is developed and its integral and differentiated structure that combines four closely related and interdependent urban meteorological components of the city, such as microclimate of a big city, thermal comfort conditions (or bioclimate) of urban areas, air pollution and cities’ vulnerability to climate change. The presence of thermal regime anomalies in the atmospheric boundary layer of Kyiv is identified. It is established that the air temperature in Kyiv is higher than Boryspil in most cases, but this excess has unsteady character and complex structure. Modeling of wind fields, air temperature and humidity has been carried out using modern three-dimensional climate model ENVI-met on the example of two sites with high-rise buildings and low level of landscaping of the territory, which according to T. Oke and I. Stewart belongs to the local climatic zone of the fourth type. It is shown that even within a small area of urbanized territory there is considerable variability in the values of the basic meteorological elements. The definition of bioclimate of the urban environment has been offered, modern principles of the study of bioclimatic features of big cities are presented. A comparative analysis of thermal indices of physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and some other indices has been performed in order to select the most appropriate index for assessing the comfort of the urban areas in Ukraine. It is recommended to use PET index, as such, which has good informativeness and a number of significant advantages over others. All stages of bioclimatic assessment in Kyiv have been realized using the physiologically equivalent temperature with the help of the RayMan model. It is substantiated that the thermal comfort conditions differ significantly within the complex urban built up area and in the conditions of the station. Therefore, the PET values simulated on the weather station data cannot be used to solve scientific and applied problems that require information of bioclimate at particular points in the urban environment. It is recommended to use modern tools – ENVI-met, RayMan, SkyHelios models to solve such problems. Theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of air pollution of the big city are systematized. The current levels of nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde air pollution of Ukrainian cities are estimated taking into account the state standards. Groups of the cities with different levels of air pollution by these substances have been identified. It is shown that the cities of Ukraine are characterized by the classical annual variation of formaldehyde with maximum values in summer and minimum in cold period. The significant influence of this atmospheric phenomenon in the course of photochemical processes in the urban environment atmosphere is shown on the example of extreme HW. The factors that increase the city’s vulnerability to climate change in comparison to other territories have been identified and detailed. The list of the main potential negative effects of climate change that may occur in the cities is given. Basic approaches to vulnerability assessment and urban adaptation to climate change are presented. The assessment methodology of the city’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change that includes world experience and based on the use of seven groups of quantitative and qualitative indicators has been developed especially for the cities of Ukraine. The suggested methodology has been tested on the seven cities of Ukraine (Lviv, Donetsk, Ternopil, Uzhgorod, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa).