Ventilating Cities—Air-Flow Criteria for Healthy and Comfortable Urban Living

The majority of the world’s population live in environments with artificially weakened wind as buildings in urban areas form wind-breaks and reduce wind speeds. Anthropogenic heat is also generated and during the summer dense urban areas suffer from the urban heat island effect, a known urban climate problem. This book discusses how to evaluate the urban wind environment, including ventilation performance and thermal comfort. This book is organized in two parts; Wind Environment and the Urban Environment and Criteria for Assessing Breeze Environments. It includes chapters on sea breeze in urban areas; thermal adaptation and the effect of wind on thermal comfort; health risk of exposures; pollutant transport in dense urban areas; legal regulations for urban ventilation and new criteria for assessing the local wind environment.Keywords: urban wind environments, urban heat island, urban climate, land use change, thermal comfort, risk assessment, urban air pollution, urban ventilation

Dr. Johannes Fromme (*1956) is a Professor for media research and adult education at the University of Magdeburg (DE) since 2002. He initially studied English, Sports and Educational Science to become a teacher, but then decided to engage in academic leisure and media research. He received his Ph.D. (doctorate) from the Faculty of Educational Science at the University of Bielefeld in 1985 and earned a qualification for lecturing (habilitation) from the same Faculty in 1995. In Magdeburg he co-developed the Bachelor (undergraduate) and the Master (graduate) Programme “Media Literacy: Visual Culture and Communication”. His main research interests are the transformation of media cultures and media literacies, Digital Game Studies and new forms of interactive and audio visual communication, and media supported forms of formal, non-formal and informal learning.Dr. Johannes Fromme (*1956) is a Professor for media research and adult education at the University of Magdeburg (DE) since 2002. He initially studied English, Sports and Educational Science to become a teacher, but then decided to engage in academic leisure and media research. He received his Ph.D. (doctorate) from the Faculty of Educational Science at the University of Bielefeld in 1985 and earned a qualification for lecturing (habilitation) from the same Faculty in 1995. In Magdeburg he co-developed the Bachelor (undergraduate) and the Master (graduate) Programme “Media Literacy: Visual Culture and Communication”. His main research interests are the transformation of media cultures and media literacies, Digital Game Studies and new forms of interactive and audio visual communication, and media supported forms of formal, non-formal and informal learning.