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Hazard Component

The heat hazard is represented as daily mean 2 m air temperature (T2M) fields on the UrbClim reference grid (~100 m, EPSG:3035).


Historical data

Item Detail
Source UrbClim via the PROVIDE/VITO API
Period 2008–2017 (daily NetCDF files)
Variable Daily mean 2 m air temperature (Kelvin)
Resolution ~100 m, EPSG:3035

2020 synthetic baseline

The 2020 baseline is a synthetic climatological year derived from the historical archive — not a single observed year. The default construction uses the month-and-day climatological mean of the 2008–2017 period for each calendar day, producing a complete year that captures the city's characteristic seasonal cycle while suppressing interannual variability.

Alternative baseline constructions supported by the framework (selectable via city YAML config):

Config value Description
climatology_mean (default) Month/day mean over 2008–2017
pixelwise_doy_max Pixelwise month/day maxima (extreme sensitivity)
domain_peak_day Daily sequence from the year containing the hottest domain-mean day
warmest_summer Daily sequence from the year with highest JJA domain-mean temperature

The active mode is set via climate.t2m_baseline_mode_default in the city YAML config.

The chosen mode is recorded in output manifests for full reproducibility.


Future hazard (2030 · 2040 · 2050)

Future fields are generated by adding monthly mean warming deltas to the synthetic baseline.

  • Deltas come from a CMIP6 GCM ensemble obtained through the PROVIDE climate service.
  • Four emissions scenarios: CurPol (current policies), GS (gradual stabilisation), SP (sustainable pathway), SSP5-8.5 (high emissions).
  • Each GCM contributes one representative delta (average of its 45th and 55th percentile warming).
  • Three uncertainty bands: Low (P25) · Central (P50) · High (P75) across models.
  • Monthly deltas are distributed uniformly to daily calendar days and added to the baseline.
  • All fields are masked to the FUA boundary before storage.

CLIMADA Hazard object

The CLIMADA Hazard object stacks all daily T2M fields across all target years into a sparse intensity matrix:

Attribute Value
Type identifier T2M
Intensity units °C
Event frequency 1 / N_days_year (corrected for leap years)
Rows One per calendar day × target year
Columns One per populated FUA grid cell

Event frequencies are set so that frequencies sum to exactly 1 within each target year, ensuring annual mortality totals aggregate correctly across the full daily series.

The climate scenario is selected via climate.t2m_clim_scen_default; the GCM uncertainty band (low/central/high) via climate.t2m_delta_pct_band_default in the city YAML.


Hazard tracks: A (standard) and B (extreme-event)

The framework supports two hazard representations, selected per city via the extreme_hazard: config block and read at runtime through HAZARD_TRACK:

  • Track A — standard daily-mean. The default. Every day of the target year is one CLIMADA event on the daily-mean T2M field (described above). Used for Rome, Athens, Lisbon, and most configured cities.
  • Track B — extreme-event (heatwave). For cities where daily-mean T2M carries limited heat signal (e.g. Copenhagen). Hazard events are heatwave days exceeding a local percentile threshold of the historical distribution for a minimum run length.

Track-B event definition (Copenhagen defaults)

Parameter Config key Default Options
Warning/event season event_track.season May 15 – Sep 30 configurable
Exceedance percentile threshold_percentile_default 95 95 / 93 / 92 / 90
Minimum duration min_duration_default 3 days 3 / 2
Intensity method intensity_method exceedance
Impact-function reference t_ref_mode_default local_p90 local_p90 / fixed_20c

Track B concentrates model sensitivity on the tail of the distribution while preserving the probabilistic risk chain, uses a cold-city impact-function variant (cold_city_if_variant: true), and changes the EWS activation to an event-mask fallback when the deaths-based threshold cannot be calibrated (see Adaptation Pathways). A city may run both tracks (run_standard_track / run_extreme_track); for Copenhagen the standard track is kept for comparability with policies disabled, and the extreme track is the policy-analysis track.


Input summary

Input / Parameter Source Notes
Historical daily T2M UrbClim via PROVIDE/VITO API 2008–2017; 100 m; EPSG:3035
Spatial domain GHS-FUA boundary Defines valid raster extent
Reference grid UrbClim native grid 100 m, EPSG:3035
2020 baseline Month/day climatological mean Synthetic
Climate warming deltas PROVIDE CMIP6 ensemble Monthly, per scenario and year
Climate scenarios CurPol, GS, SP, SSP5-8.5 Four CMIP6 pathways
Climate uncertainty P25 / P50 / P75 across GCMs Low / Central / High
Target years 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050 2020 synthetic; future delta-scaled

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