Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory (ACTUAL)

世界上大多数人口现在居住在城市，城市已经承担了全球80%的碳排放。在2003年的热浪期间，伦敦的能源消耗激增--预计到本世纪50年代，这种极端温度将成为常态。我们日益老化的城市基础设施需要转型，以抵御21世纪的气候，而不会因能源使用的增加而恶化。但城市地区的建筑不仅可以承受当地的气候，还会改变当地的气候。致力于改造城市基础设施的工程师和规划师通常没有认识到这种相互作用，部分原因是设计标准所基于的科学没有纳入对城市气候的理解。要使现有和新建的建筑可持续地承受更温暖的未来，既需要立法也需要标准--但没有证据就不能制定政策。以当地气候为基础的可持续城市规划因缺乏代表性数据而受到阻碍。这在一定程度上是由于在城市地区用传统的地面方法进行具有代表性的全面测量的困难。遥感技术--使用激光和声脉冲探测远处建筑物上方的空气--可以为这个问题提供一种尖端的解决方案。这项提议的目的是创建高级气候技术城市大气实验室(Actual)，由监测和模拟从城市到建筑规模的城市气候的工具组成；并将结果直接整合到改变城市基础设施的工程和政策领域。核心项目将是建立实际的，需要相当大的发展仪器和数据记录系统，目标是在5年内为伦敦提供强大的、有代表性的气候数据。头五年的研究主题是建筑对更温暖的伦敦气候的可持续适应。三个相互关联的研究团队将利用这一主题中的实际数据：1)改善城市气候模拟；2)评估建筑布局对城市通风的影响；3)开发优化城市可再生能源发电的工具。该项目汇集了各种各样的工程师、气象学家、地方当局政策制定者和工程顾问。确保这些领域之间明确的知识交流是至关重要的：因此，在整个项目中将开发一个虚拟城市环境(City-VUE)。这包括综合的网络和虚拟教育活动，使学校、公众、政策制定者和工程师参与进来。Actual和City-Vue将成为工程师在21世纪支持城市基础设施其他方面可持续改造的关键资源。

Most of the world's population now lives in cities, which are already responsible for 80% of the world's carbon emissions. London's energy use soared during the 2003 heatwave - such extreme temperatures are predicted to be a regular occurrence by the 2050s. Our ageing urban infrastructure needs transformation to withstand the 21st century climate, without worsening it by increased use of energy. But buildings in urban areas don't just withstand local climate: they change it. This interaction is not generally recognised by engineers and planners working to transform urban infrastructure, partly because the science on which design standards are based does not incorporate understanding of urban climate. Adaptation of existing and new buildings to withstand warmer futures sustainably needs both legislation and standards - but policy cannot be formulated without evidence. Planning for sustainable cities on the basis of local climate has been hampered by lack of representative data. This is partially due to the difficulties of making representative full-scale measurements in urban areas with traditional, ground-based methods. Remote sensing techniques - using lasers and sound pulses to probe the air above the buildings at a distance - can provide a cutting-edge solution to the problem. The aim of this proposal is create the Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory (ACTUAL), consisting of the tools to monitor and simulate urban climate from city down to building scale; and to integrate results directly into engineering and policy areas which transform urban infrastructure. The Core Project will be to build ACTUAL, requiring considerable development of instrumentation and data logging systems, with the goal of providing robust, representative climate data for London within 5 years. The research theme over the first five years is sustainable adaptation of buildings to a warmer London climate. Three interlinked Research Strands will exploit ACTUAL data within this theme: 1) improving urban climate simulation 2) assessing the effect of building layout on city ventilation and 3) developing tools to optimise urban renewable energy generation. The project brings together a diverse selection of engineers, meteorologists, local authority policy makers, and engineering consultants. Ensuring clear knowledge exchange between these areas is essential: so throughout the project a Virtual Urban Environment will be developed (City-VUE). This consists of integrated web-based and virtual educational activities to engage schools, the public, policy makers and engineers. ACTUAL and City-VUE will become key resources for engineers to underpin sustainable transformation of other aspects of urban infrastructure into the 21st century.