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Definitions for Terminologies of Urban Survey

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General Urban Services refer to services provided in the context of city management (by mayors and other city agencies), including transportation, housing, water management, waste management, snow clearance, etc. 

In the context of WMO activities, Urban Integrated Services refer to the provision of highly spatially resolved information on an urban scale of weather, climate, hydrology and air quality that supports the decision-making required for the provisions of the general urban services. These services may be provided directly by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in partnership with the different stakeholders or partners in public and private agencies. These services are provided to the user community and to authorities.

Components of Urban Integrated Services include forecasts (long- and short-term) and early warning elements. Examples of the early warning elements include extreme weather event forecasts (e.g. typhoons, coastal inundation, flooding, air quality, health-related stress) while the long-term forecasts include information for long-term city planning, zoning and design.

Integrated Services means that the end-user receives information or products that include several elements (two or more) from meteorology, climate, hydrology and air quality forecasting. Individually, different elements of the integrated services could be delivered through different programs or even agencies, while in integrated services; users receive combined information for multiple elements at the same time.

A Test Bed is a city which includes all essential information needed for providing Urban Integrated Services, as well as information on the measures taken as a result of the Urban Integrated Services, on the behaviour of people, on the target parameters, etc. 

Integrated platform is a data-sharing mechanism that allows for data streaming from diverse service providers to be combined into integrated seamless products.

Integration is a process that ensures that several elements of the services work jointly and in a seamless manner. Integration can be implemented at the level of organization (e.g. between departments), at the level of physical infrastructure (e.g. utilization of the same locations for multiple diverse observations), at the level of model/forecast development (inclusion of the elements from different domains, e.g. meteorology, coupled with hydrology and atmospheric chemistry), at the level of data sharing and at the final service delivery (e.g. seamlessly combined products from different sources).

An Impact based forecast is a form of environmental forecast that includes estimates of potential negative impacts of a selected hydro-meteorological or related event.

A partner is an organization or individual that has a mutual interest in the development and use of integrated urban service to meet the needs of users.

A partnership is an agreement between partners where resources are contributed to the development of an Urban Integrated Service.

A stakeholder is a user of urban weather, climate, and hydrological and/or environmental service.

Dissemination means provision of information/data/products produced by the providers of the integrated urban services to the user community including the general public, through open channels.

Communication is the provision of general information about integrated urban services or their individual components or other general information related to weather, climate, hydrological or air quality without sharing specific data products (different from dissemination).

Proficiency refers to the level of the skills in a particular subject/area.

 

Other useful terms

Domino Effect refers to the sequence of natural hazards that are initiated by others in a high-density urban environment (downstream cascading impacts on existing infrastructure and services requiring short-term mitigation and longer-term planning and policy responses).

Blue and Green solutions, an eco-systems approach (blue refers to adding water elements, green for adding trees and parks) for urban design. Urban governments need weather, climate, hydrological and air quality information for their design and management at the sub-urban scale.

Urban Services and City Design

Water: forecast of water resources availability (both in terms of flow and precipitation) is fundamental in managing the functioning of Blue solutions and to activate them during dangerous occurrences;

Heat: to foster Green design over a city to activate secure pathways for fragile populations, to furnish warnings, including climate watch advisories, to design a proper texture of the city itself (where to place hospitals, schools, commercial centres);

Ecology: ecological pathways within cities are not only a biological issue but interactions between the air-flow and the urban environment and how it affects the transport of biological materials (pollens, spores, small insects);

City texture and materials: during the design phase, weather and climate information are fundamental to properly design and plan future city structures (open spaces and living spaces, knowns as “agorà”). Also, to be considered is the increased quantity of permeable surfaces to increase water retention and therefore decrease runoff and flood peaks.

 

Examples of Urban services

 

•          Storm tide level forecasts and warning

•          Road freezing warning

•          Heat index

•          Pollen concentration and type forecast

•          Forecast of the exceedance of AQ limit value

•          Probability of circulatory collapse

•          Pluvial flooding forecast and warning

•          UV index

•          Forest fire index

•          Forecast of air temperature within the roughness layer

•          Assessment of probability for allergic shocks

•          Advice for Human response (e.g., evacuation or move to secure locations)