Urban heat island and its impact on climate change resilience in a shrinking city: the case of Glasgow, UK

Given its long urban history of growth and decline, Glasgow, UK, provides a historically significant opportunity to study the local climatic changes brought about by urban variables. This study investigates the changes in air temperature within the central area of Glasgow using three data sources: the UK Meteorological Office historical data for Glasgow (climate normals and running data for a 50-year period), the Weather Underground network; MIDAS Surface Weather Stations network of the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC). Three approaches were used to evaluate Glasgow’s local climate change: assessment of mean air temperature increases based on two concurrent climate normals, traditional UHI approach (i.e. differences between a ‘rural’ and an ‘urban’ site) and observed temperatures in locations with different land cover characteristics (using the Local Climate Zone LCZ concept. Planning and building scale implications for other shrinking cities are explored.