Climate Model Berlin - Analysis Maps 2001

Statistical Base

The application of numerical simulation models requires acquisition of basic data and of meteorological ancillary conditions in a territory extending beyond the actual investigation area. This is designed to assure that the model can “swing itself into place”, so as to be able to simulate conditions as realistically as possible at the margins of the actual project area (for the methodology of the FITNAH climate model used here, cf. (Methodology). Hence, the investigation area consists of two major components: the approx. 890 km² area of the city of Berlin, and an approx. 1650 km² area in the suburbs. In addition, a detailed-analysis area has been defined, in which the FITNAH climate model has been applied in 4-fold grid resolution (cf. Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Classification of the land use for the model application. A key with 14 use classes is used, adjusted to the requirements of the FITNAH model. The red rectangle encloses the area of the detailed-analysis area in the model application

Only a few of the parameters used for the Berlin urban area were obtained especially for this project; for the most part, data bases developed over the years of work on the Environmental Atlas and for the Berlin ISU which are available for various evaluations and calculations. The Urban and Environmental Information System (ISU) of the Senate Department of Urban Development contains approx. 25,000 individual areas in a spatial reference system, which has been made available for the calculation of the climatic quanta in the ISU:

• Land use. The data on land use are based on the evaluation of aerial photography, borough land use maps and additional documents for the Environmental Atlas (cf. Maps 06.01, SenStadtUm 1995b, 1995e and 06.02, SenStadtUm 1995c, 1995f). Some 30 types of use are distinguished. At the time of the model application, they still showed the use situation as of 1990, except for single-item supplements (updating of the data for the situation as of the end of 2001 is in process).
• Urban structural types (Map 06.07, SenStadtUm 1995g). A further improvement of this data was carried out via a factual database, which contains type-specific details on the heights of buildings and vegetal structures within the individual urban structural types.
• Sealing (Map 01.02, SenStadtUm 1995d).

For the purpose of verification of model results, the following were particularly selected from the stock of existing climate maps and reports:

• Daytime and nighttime surface temperatures (Map04.06, SenStadt 2001d);
• Daytime and nighttime bio-climate (Map 04.09, SenStadtUm 1998b);
• Investigation of the local climatic situation at Gleisdreieck (Vogt 2002a) and (Vogt 2002b).

In addition, about 700 project areas recorded as part of the Urban Development Lot Monitoring Project of the Senate Department of Urban Development between 1990 and the end of 2002 were incorporated into the geographical and factual database. For the provision of the initial orographic parameters for the calculation of the wind and temperature fields, a separate terrain altitude model was generated for Berlin on the basis of the altitude points of the drilling point file of the Berlin Geological Service (110,000 data points) (Map 01.08, SenStadtUm 1998a).

In order to do justice to the higher model resolution in the detailed-analysis area, the geometric and factual data of the Automated Property Map (ALK) were consulted for this part for the extended evaluation. In particular, the ALK, the illustrative section of the so-called Property Register, shows not only the lots, but also the buildings in their precise size, including numbers of storeys, and is therefore well suited as an information base for the illustration of building structures (cf. Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Detail from the Automated Property Map (indication of numbers of storeys in Roman numerals).

The addition building ground plans with the building heights derived from the ALK stock could thus be integrated into the base geometry of the partial blocks of the ISU 1:50,000 map.

The followings data bases were of use for the incorporation of the areas outside of Berlin:

• ATKIS (Official Cartographic Information System). The map collection encompasses the first implementation step of the basic landscape model DLM 25/1. The basic data stock contains various types of object and attributes. The streets, paths, railroads, bodies of water and boundaries form a geometrically exact line structure of the landscape. It is filled out by the two-dimensional landscape elements, such as residential areas, etc.
• The terrain altitudes were taken from the data stock of the CORINE Project. Corine stands for “Coordinated Recording of Information on the Environment,” and is a program established in 1985 by the Commission of the European Union to record environmental data.

Fig. 3: Database and data flow for the application of the climate model FITNAH