Beyond the EcoCities project, The University of Manchester is undertaking a broad range of research projects that are not funded by EcoCities but will nevertheless inform the initiative, particularly the adaptation strategy for Greater Manchester. These related research projects include:
Sustainable cities: options for responding to climate change impacts and outcomes (SCORCHIO)
SCORCHIO aims to develop tools to help planners, designers and engineers to adapt urban areas to cope with the impacts of climate change. The project will look in particular at the effects of heat on human comfort. The University of Manchester is working in partnership with the Universities of East Anglia, Newcastle and Sheffield, and with the Met Office, on this project, which has been funded by the EPSRC.
Co-incident probabilistic climate change weather data for a sustainable built environment (COPSE)
Research has shown that current building design for urban areas is often based on inaccurate weather data sets that are obtained from semi-rural locations rather than towns and cities. COPSE will investigate the deficiencies in current weather data so that a more realistic idea of urban weather patterns can be established. The project will look at solar radiation, wind and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which describes the higher temperatures experienced in urban areas, compared with those in the surrounding countryside.
Further information about these projects can be found on the University of Manchester website www.manchester.ac.uk/ecocities.