Ms. Maria ERNST

Cities have a significant impact on their environment, regarding temperature but also regarding air quality. This impact is also observable at larger scales, such in peri-urban areas. Given this data, sustainable solutions to dampen the city’s effects can be suggested in the form of urban vegetalization and efforts for preserving natural areas and agricultural land. My PhD’s aim will be to quantify how urban vegetalization affects microclimate and air quality, at the scale of a city but also at a larger scale, in order to evaluate how it modifies agricultural production capacities in and outside the city. The goal will also be to quantify the impact of agricultural and natural land urbanization and urban densification on climate and air quality at a regional scale, and therefore quantifying the agricultural production potential. Practically, a valid numerical model should be developed to model heat and pollutant exchanges in an urbanized and vegetalized area. During the PhD, markers related to urban planning considerations will be developed, taking into account urban heat island effect and air quality : the long-term goal of the project is to transfer a valid modeling tool to urban planners in order to allow them to quantify the effects of urban development on environmental and public health issues.