UCL-Energy Seminar: 'Measuring and modelling urban microclimate,' Professor Janet Barlow, University of Reading

As most of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, understanding climate processes at the scale of individual buildings becomes ever more important. The microclimate experienced by a single building depends on complex turbulent exchanges of heat, momentum and moisture determined by local flow patterns. These patterns in turn depend on where the building lies in a neighbourhood, and where the neighbourhood lies in the city. This talk presents work focused on understanding a building's microclimate using field measurements and wind tunnel modelling to evaluate and improve modelling tools. Applications include weather forecasting, wind energy and building ventilation. Results shown are drawn from measurement campaigns conducted over the last decade in London (the DAPPLE, ACTUAL and ClearfLo projects), and emerging work linking indoor climate to external flows (the Refresh project). 

About the speaker:

Professor Janet Barlow has research interests in urban meteorology and environmental wind engineering. She has conducted extensive field and wind tunnel based research into urban microclimates and is particularly focused on application to engineering problems. She is also interested in wind energy research. She is currently a member of the Wind Engineering Society Steering Group and previously was a Board Member for the International Association for Urban Climate.