Benjamin Bechtel
Biographic Data
| ID | 6931067 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin Bechtel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin |
| FAMILY NAME | Bechtel |
| SIGNATURE | BECHTEL B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universität Hamburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8802-7934 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
A Data-Driven Framework to Identify Tree Planting Potential in Urban Areas
Urban areas increasingly face heat-related climate risks, necessitating targeted, nature-based interventions such as tree planting to improve resilience, livability, and public health. This study presents a data-driven workflow to identify urban tree planting potential (TPP) in the city of Dortmund, Germany. The approach integrates high-resolution spatial datasets capturing land cover, shading, thermal comfort, population density, and critical in…
Weekly rhythms of urban heat islands
Multi-city analysis of satellite surface temperature compared to crowdsourced air temperature
Many urban heat studies have been conducted on a city-by-city basis, primarily focusing on summer days, overlooking the broader impact of background climate, seasonality, and diurnal cycle. Moreover, in some cities where there is a lack of observational data on urban air temperature ( T a ), there has been a reliance on satellite-based land surface temperature (LST) to explore and predict the changes in near-surface thermal environments. However,…
A global map of local climate zones to support earth system modelling and urban-scale environmental science
There is a scientific consensus on the need for spatially detailed information on urban landscapes at a global scale. These data can support a range of environmental services, since cities are places of intense resource consumption and waste generation and of concentrated infrastructure and human settlement exposed to multiple hazards of natural and anthropogenic origin. In the face of climate change, urban data are also required to explore futur…
Multi-Domain Design Structure Matrix Approach Applied to Urban System Modeling
Modeling the urban system for urban health and well-being with the aim of finding ways to optimize the well-being of urban dwellers is a complex task. Different modeling approaches that consider specific parts of the urban system, e.g., environmental stressors, urban society, and urban morphology, need to be integrated. The conceptual model of health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth) has been constructed to provide a structure for an integrate…
The Human Influence Experiment (Part 2)
Since 2012, Local Climate Zones (LCZ) have been used for numerous studies related to urban environment. In 2015, this use amplified because a method to map urban areas in LCZs was introduced by the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT). However in 2017, the first HUMan INfluence EXperiment showed that these maps often have poor or low quality. Since the maps are used in different applications such as urban modelling and land use/l…
Is It Possible to Distinguish Global and Regional Climate Change from Urban Land Cover Induced Signals? A Mid-Latitude City Example
The local climate in cities differs from the one in rural areas, most prominently characterized by increased surface and air temperatures, known as the “(surface) urban heat island”. As climate has changed and continues to change in all areas of the world, the question arises whether the effects that are noticeable in urban areas are “homemade”, or whether some of them originate from global and regional scale climate changes. Identifying the loca…
Relation between Observed and Perceived Traffic Noise and Socio-Economic Status in Urban Blocks of Different Characteristics
Living in cities offers many benefits and thus more and more people are living in urban areas. However, the concentration of human activities also creates environmental stressors with severe influence on people’s health and well-being. Noise is an environmental stressor with known health impact. Despite this, studies investigating small-scale difference in noise exposure and annoyance are lacking. Against this background, this case study investig…
Towards a satellite based monitoring of urban air temperatures
A Conceptual Modeling Approach to Health-Related Urban Well-Being
In cities, social well-being faces obstacles posed by globalization, demographic and climate change, new forms of social organization, and the fragmentation of lifestyles. These changes affect the vulnerability of city societies and impact their health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth). The conceptual model introduced in this paper systematizes the relevant variables while considering previous research, and establishes the target value UrbWell…
Quality of Crowdsourced Data on Urban Morphology—The Human Influence Experiment (Huminex)
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is a community initiative to collect worldwide data on urban form (i.e., morphology, materials) and function (i.e., use and metabolism). This is achieved through crowdsourcing, which we define here as the collection of data by a bounded crowd, composed of students. In this process, training data for the classification of urban structures into Local Climate Zones (LCZ) are obtained, which a…
Planning for Community-based Disaster Resilience Worldwide
Mapping Local Climate Zones for a Worldwide Database of the Form and Function of Cities
Progress in urban climate science is severely restricted by the lack of useful information that describes aspects of the form and function of cities at a detailed spatial resolution. To overcome this shortcoming we are initiating an international effort to develop the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) to gather and disseminate this information in a consistent manner for urban areas worldwide. The first step in developing WUDAP…
Quality of Crowdsourced Data on Urban Morphology—The Human Influence Experiment (Huminex)
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is a community initiative to collect worldwide data on urban form (i.e., morphology, materials) and function (i.e., use and metabolism). This is achieved through crowdsourcing, which we define here as the collection of data by a bounded crowd, composed of students. In this process, training data for the classification of urban structures into Local Climate Zones (LCZ) are obtained, which a…
Relation between Observed and Perceived Traffic Noise and Socio-Economic Status in Urban Blocks of Different Characteristics
Living in cities offers many benefits and thus more and more people are living in urban areas. However, the concentration of human activities also creates environmental stressors with severe influence on people’s health and well-being. Noise is an environmental stressor with known health impact. Despite this, studies investigating small-scale difference in noise exposure and annoyance are lacking. Against this background, this case study investig…
A Conceptual Modeling Approach to Health-Related Urban Well-Being
In cities, social well-being faces obstacles posed by globalization, demographic and climate change, new forms of social organization, and the fragmentation of lifestyles. These changes affect the vulnerability of city societies and impact their health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth). The conceptual model introduced in this paper systematizes the relevant variables while considering previous research, and establishes the target value UrbWell…
Mapping Local Climate Zones for a Worldwide Database of the Form and Function of Cities
Progress in urban climate science is severely restricted by the lack of useful information that describes aspects of the form and function of cities at a detailed spatial resolution. To overcome this shortcoming we are initiating an international effort to develop the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) to gather and disseminate this information in a consistent manner for urban areas worldwide. The first step in developing WUDAP…
Planning for Community-based Disaster Resilience Worldwide
Towards a satellite based monitoring of urban air temperatures
A Conceptual Modeling Approach to Health-Related Urban Well-Being
In cities, social well-being faces obstacles posed by globalization, demographic and climate change, new forms of social organization, and the fragmentation of lifestyles. These changes affect the vulnerability of city societies and impact their health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth). The conceptual model introduced in this paper systematizes the relevant variables while considering previous research, and establishes the target value UrbWell…
Quality of Crowdsourced Data on Urban Morphology—The Human Influence Experiment (Huminex)
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is a community initiative to collect worldwide data on urban form (i.e., morphology, materials) and function (i.e., use and metabolism). This is achieved through crowdsourcing, which we define here as the collection of data by a bounded crowd, composed of students. In this process, training data for the classification of urban structures into Local Climate Zones (LCZ) are obtained, which a…
Is It Possible to Distinguish Global and Regional Climate Change from Urban Land Cover Induced Signals? A Mid-Latitude City Example
The local climate in cities differs from the one in rural areas, most prominently characterized by increased surface and air temperatures, known as the “(surface) urban heat island”. As climate has changed and continues to change in all areas of the world, the question arises whether the effects that are noticeable in urban areas are “homemade”, or whether some of them originate from global and regional scale climate changes. Identifying the loca…
Relation between Observed and Perceived Traffic Noise and Socio-Economic Status in Urban Blocks of Different Characteristics
Living in cities offers many benefits and thus more and more people are living in urban areas. However, the concentration of human activities also creates environmental stressors with severe influence on people’s health and well-being. Noise is an environmental stressor with known health impact. Despite this, studies investigating small-scale difference in noise exposure and annoyance are lacking. Against this background, this case study investig…
The Human Influence Experiment (Part 2)
Since 2012, Local Climate Zones (LCZ) have been used for numerous studies related to urban environment. In 2015, this use amplified because a method to map urban areas in LCZs was introduced by the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT). However in 2017, the first HUMan INfluence EXperiment showed that these maps often have poor or low quality. Since the maps are used in different applications such as urban modelling and land use/l…
Multi-Domain Design Structure Matrix Approach Applied to Urban System Modeling
Modeling the urban system for urban health and well-being with the aim of finding ways to optimize the well-being of urban dwellers is a complex task. Different modeling approaches that consider specific parts of the urban system, e.g., environmental stressors, urban society, and urban morphology, need to be integrated. The conceptual model of health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth) has been constructed to provide a structure for an integrate…
A global map of local climate zones to support earth system modelling and urban-scale environmental science
There is a scientific consensus on the need for spatially detailed information on urban landscapes at a global scale. These data can support a range of environmental services, since cities are places of intense resource consumption and waste generation and of concentrated infrastructure and human settlement exposed to multiple hazards of natural and anthropogenic origin. In the face of climate change, urban data are also required to explore futur…
Weekly rhythms of urban heat islands
Multi-city analysis of satellite surface temperature compared to crowdsourced air temperature
Many urban heat studies have been conducted on a city-by-city basis, primarily focusing on summer days, overlooking the broader impact of background climate, seasonality, and diurnal cycle. Moreover, in some cities where there is a lack of observational data on urban air temperature ( T a ), there has been a reliance on satellite-based land surface temperature (LST) to explore and predict the changes in near-surface thermal environments. However,…
A Data-Driven Framework to Identify Tree Planting Potential in Urban Areas
Urban areas increasingly face heat-related climate risks, necessitating targeted, nature-based interventions such as tree planting to improve resilience, livability, and public health. This study presents a data-driven workflow to identify urban tree planting potential (TPP) in the city of Dortmund, Germany. The approach integrates high-resolution spatial datasets capturing land cover, shading, thermal comfort, population density, and critical in…
Geography (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Urban Heat Island Mitigation (8 works) · Environmental Science (7 works) · Urban Green Space and Health (6 works) · Land Use and Ecosystem Services (5 works) · Meteorology (5 works) · Urban heat island (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Land use (4 works)