The progressive growth of the urban population makes the environmental sustainability of cities critical and the adoption of mitigation and adaptation strategies urgent.
Air quality and climate change with specific focus on the urban environment have found in recent years more and more space in international planning (European in particular) and in many research areas. In the atmospheric field, the complexity involved in describing the dynamics and thermal forcing within the urban canopy makes it difficult to fully understand atmospheric circulation and energy exchange. Significant information comes from idealized studies in the laboratory, from the strengthening of observational networks (ground-based and remote sensing) and from the improvement of numerical models, both in terms of parameterization and performance. Models in particular are essential as they are the only source of weather data for "what-if" scenarios or future projections. The seminar will cover my research activity in the field of modeling of urban areas, from idealized to realistic simulations. A particular focus will be on numerical WRF simulations of the urban heat island and related mitigation techniques, urban air quality and energy applications, including in the context of climate change. These applications have emphasized the relevance of the accuracy of meteorological data and the need for more realistic configurations of the urban fabric