Impact of the urban heat island on freeze-thaw risk of natural stone in the built environment: a case study in Ghent, Belgium

Daphne Guilbert; Steven Caluwaerts; Klaas Calle; Nathan Van Den Bossche; Veerle Cnudde; Tim De Kock

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.344

Impact of the urban heat island on freeze-thaw risk of natural stone in the built environment: a case study in Ghent, Belgium

Daphne Guilbert^*, Steven Caluwaerts, Klaas Calle, Nathan Van Den Bossche, Veerle Cnudde, Tim De Kock

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Freeze-thaw cycles are important in the weathering behaviour of natural building stones in humid, cold to temperate climates. It is expected that the elevated air temperatures in urban environments, the so-called urban heat island (UHI), will have an impact on freeze-thaw weathering. In this study, the impact of the urban heat island on the potential freeze-thaw risk is assessed by parameterization of climatic data of 1 year (07/2016–06/2017) from the MOCCA (Monitoring the City's Climate and Atmosphere) project, which studies the urban heat island in Ghent, Belgium. The dose-response of Savonnières, a French limestone often used as building stone, is investigated in laboratory and by HAM simulations. Analysis of the MOCCA data demonstrates that the urban heat island phenomenon decreases the number and intensity of freeze-thaw cycles in an urban environment with 42% and 41% respectively for the studied year in Ghent. This decrease suggests a mitigation of frost risk in urban environments. Laboratory tests and computational simulations confirm that this leads indeed to a decreased freeze-thaw risk in urban landscapes compared to the surrounding rural environment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	9-18
Number of pages	10
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
Volume	677
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.344
Publication status	Published - 10 Aug 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Tim De Kock is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and acknowledges its support and its research grant FWO18/KAN/018 . Bauklimatic-Dresden is acknowledged for providing a Delphin license for this research. The authors are grateful to Dr. Thibault Demoulin (ETH Zürich) for providing information on his iButtons setup and to Guy Wauters (UGent) for the assembly of the probe. Wolf Vanrafelghem and ROCAMAT are acknowledged for providing the test material of Savonnières. Appendix A

Keywords

Heat air moisture (HAM) transport
Heritage
Ice crystallization
Urban climate
Zero curtain effect

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.344

Cite this

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title = "Impact of the urban heat island on freeze-thaw risk of natural stone in the built environment: a case study in Ghent, Belgium",

abstract = "Freeze-thaw cycles are important in the weathering behaviour of natural building stones in humid, cold to temperate climates. It is expected that the elevated air temperatures in urban environments, the so-called urban heat island (UHI), will have an impact on freeze-thaw weathering. In this study, the impact of the urban heat island on the potential freeze-thaw risk is assessed by parameterization of climatic data of 1 year (07/2016–06/2017) from the MOCCA (Monitoring the City's Climate and Atmosphere) project, which studies the urban heat island in Ghent, Belgium. The dose-response of Savonni{\`e}res, a French limestone often used as building stone, is investigated in laboratory and by HAM simulations. Analysis of the MOCCA data demonstrates that the urban heat island phenomenon decreases the number and intensity of freeze-thaw cycles in an urban environment with 42% and 41% respectively for the studied year in Ghent. This decrease suggests a mitigation of frost risk in urban environments. Laboratory tests and computational simulations confirm that this leads indeed to a decreased freeze-thaw risk in urban landscapes compared to the surrounding rural environment.",

keywords = "Heat air moisture (HAM) transport, Heritage, Ice crystallization, Urban climate, Zero curtain effect",

author = "Daphne Guilbert and Steven Caluwaerts and Klaas Calle and {Van Den Bossche}, Nathan and Veerle Cnudde and {De Kock}, Tim",

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Impact of the urban heat island on freeze-thaw risk of natural stone in the built environment: a case study in Ghent, Belgium

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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