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Erasmus project

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Summary

Summarise what we did, what our results were, and what our conclusion was.

Introduction

The atmosphere is a mixture of gases that surrounds the Earth. Some of these gases are nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. The atmosphere keeps out most of the ultraviolet radiation, while letting in the Sun’s warm rays. Over the last 150 years, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased. The greenhouse gases trap heat through the greenhouse effect, which causes an increase in temperature. Solar heat, also known as temperature, is a necessity for life to exist on Earth. Temperatures can differ around the world, therefore they can be stone cold or boiling hot. It is one of the factors that influence the weather. For example, a warmer temperature causes water to evaporate and eventually causes it to turn into rainy clouds. The average weather in an area is also known as the climate. Climates differ all over the world, however there is a certain pattern. At the equator you’ll find a tropic climate, a fairly hot climate with a lot of rain, and at the poles you will find a polar climate, a cold climate that makes it quite hard for plants to grow. Therefore temperature can affect climates, but also environments and ecologies.

As the climate is changing, certain countries have agreed to try to work together to keep climate change under control. These agreements were made during the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, the Paris Climate conference. The goals that are written down this agreement are:

Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production;

Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.

Next to the greenhouse gases, the location can also influence the temperatures of a certain area. Therefore, we decided to look at the temperature differences between the suburbs and the city centre.

We performed our research in three different countries; the Netherlands, Croatia and Poland. The locations chosen also vary a lot in characteristics. In the Netherlands, we chose to measure temperature in Rotterdam (city) and Rhoon (suburb) and the locations are 8,2 km apart from each other. While in Poland, we chose to measure it in Nysa citycentre and suburb with a distance of 5 km. In Croatia, the measurements were performed in Buzet citycentre and suburb which are … km removed from each other.

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The Netherlands is the smallest, yet the most developed country. A lot of the land has been recaptured from the sea, therefore a big part is below sea level. Due to its position next to the North Sea, it has a maritime climate. The Dutch population counts about 17 million inhabitants. The capital is Amsterdam, however the country is governed from The Hague.

Rotterdam is a big port city in the west of the Netherlands, in the province South-Holland. Through the city flows the Nieuwe Maas, which is very important for the port and so for trading with other countries. Rotterdam is one of the most important cities of the Netherlands and has a population of about 623 thousand people. There is a huge diversity in people that live in Rotterdam, as it is very attractive and promises work opportunities. Due to the bombardments in the WWII, the city was rebuild and is now very modern with lots of high buildings.

Poland is located in Central Europe. It has the largest temperate seasonal climate. Poland has a population of about 37.97 million and is the largest country of the three. After the second world war, the Polish rebuilt the country using Bernardo Bellotto’s paintings, therefore it architecturally looks more like it was build in the 14th century rather than the 20th century.

Nysa is a town in southwestern Poland. It has 44,419 inhabitants. Through Nysa flows the Nysa Kłodzka, which is connected to a huge man-made water tank called the Jezioro Nyskie.

Croatia is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, on the Adriatic Sea. The capital of the Republic of Croatia is Zagreb. It shares a maritime border with Italy. Croatia is also suffering from emigration, as people are migrating to find better opportunities. This shows that Croatia is indeed the least developed. It has a population of around 4.154 million people, however it is expected to have only 3.1 million inhabitants by 2050.

Buzet is a town and therefore it is the smallest of these three. It is situated in Istria, Croatia and has around 6000 inhabitants.

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To answer our research question ‘what is the difference in temperature of the city centre and suburbs in different countries’, we set up a hypothesis; we expect that the temperature in the city centre will be higher than in the suburbs, because heat is trapped between the buildings of the city, resulting in a higher temperature.

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| Poland city
| Poland suburbs  | Croatia city | Croatia suburbs | Netherlands city | Netherlands suburbs
14/1 | 1 ˚C | 0 ˚C | 8 ˚C | 7,6 ˚C | 8,6 ˚C | 8,5 ˚C
16/1 | 2,1 ˚C | 1,5 ˚C | 7 ˚C | 6,5 ˚C | 8,2 ˚C | 8 ˚C
18/1 | 4 ˚C | 3 ˚C | 6 ˚C | 5,3 ˚C | 4,4 ˚C | 4,2 ˚C
21/1 | -4,9 ˚C | -5,5 ˚C | 5 ˚C | 4,5 ˚C | 4,3 ˚C | 4 ˚C
23/1 | -2,5 ˚C | -3,2 ˚C | 3 ˚C | 3,6 ˚C | 0,6 ˚C | 0 ˚C
25/1 | 0 ˚C | -1 ˚C | 7 ˚C | 10, 5 ˚C | 3 ˚C | 2 ˚C

For the Polish results, it can be seen that throughout the two weeks it was warmer in the city than in the suburbs. The Croatian results tell us that until the 21st of January, it had also been warmer in the city than in the suburbs. However after that it got warmer in the suburbs. The Dutch results complement the hypothesis as well as it shows it to have been warmer in the city than in the suburbs.

PL        HR        NL
14/1     1 ˚C         0,4        0,1
16/1    0,6        0,5        0,2
18/1    1        0,7        0,2
21/1     0,6        0,5        0,3
23/1    0,7        (-) 0,6        0,6
25/1     1        (-) 2,5        1
Av.     0,82        0,86        0,4

If we look more closely at the differences between the city and suburbs in the different countries, we see that the Netherlands has the lowest average of them all. The second lowest average is from Poland, however it is still very close with around a 0,04 ˚C difference. Therefore Croatia seems to have the biggest difference in temperature.

In conclusion, our hypothesis has not been fully confirmed. The center is usually warmer than on the outskirts but not always. Other factors than the size of cities affect the temperature more, so this part of the hypothesis has not been confirmed too.

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To answer our hypothesis, we decided that we would do the measurements over a time span of two weeks. Every monday, wednesday and friday at 4:00 pm, we’d measure the temperature in both the city and suburbs by using a thermometer. The Dutch group decided to split up so we’d have the exact same time, because there was a possibility that the temperature would change during the 30 minute commute. To check if the thermometers were giving the same results in the same area, the thermometers were checked on at different times for a week before the actual week of measuring began. The Polish group and the Croatian decided to stay together while measuring.