Urban climatic map studies in Taiwan: Kaohsiung

Abstract

Currently, cities are becoming increasingly ‘high density’ or ‘mega’, as characterised by their compact urban fabric and large urban population (UN, 2002a; Kraas, 2007). This is especially true in developing countries where it has become immensely difficult to achieve sustainable urban development with high-quality living (Ng, 2009). Although scientifically based urban climatic studies have been widely conducted, the application of urban climatic knowledge to urban planning decision making has been, until now, rather limited. One difficulty is the translation between the working languages of scientists and city planners (Bitan, 1984; Oke, 1984; Eliasson, 2000; Mills, 2006; Ng, 2009). From the perspective of planners, the difficulties can include the following reasons: (A) Planners’ lack of a scientific educational background makes it difficult for them to understand the scientific knowledge of climatologists. Planners can have difficulty translating numbers and scientific equations into a meaningful patterns for planning application. It is not easy for them to reconcile the scientific working style of ‘precision’ and the planning working style of ‘balance’ (Eliasson, 2000; Ng, 2009; Mills et al., 2010).