Welcome
Approximately 80% of Canadians reside in cities where the near-surface atmosphere is strongly affected both by the nature of the urban surface and by anthropogenic modification to the characteristics and constituents of the urban atmosphere.
The EPiCC project seeks to better understand the urban atmosphere in Canada through a programme of observation, modelling and remote sensing.
We focus our efforts on two Canadian cities with contrasting climate and long histories and extensive databases of urban climate research: Montreal and Vancouver, but our results will be applicable to urban areas throughout Canada.
The overall objective is to provide Canadian urban residents with better weather and air quality forecasts through development of an urban-atmosphere modeling system evaluated for Canadian urban climates. This enhanced forecasting capability will contribute to the safety, health and well being of Canadians through better understanding of the dispersion of smog and particulate precursors in urban environments, accidental and terrorist releases, heat stress and wind chill, and dispersion of air pollutants in urban environments. The research will also contribute knowledge to the better conservation of urban resources (energy and water utilities) and identify the most effective ways for Canadian cities to contribute to meeting our Kyoto Protocol commitments.
A summary of our project is available in the attached poster.
News
Montreal Sites' Characteristics and Methods Report Released!
Congratulations to Dr. Onil Bergeron, Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, from the Atmospheric and Environmental Research Lab at McGill University on the release of the Montreal Sites Technical Report #1. This document thoroughly describes the measurements made at the Montreal sites and the main site characteristics. [FULL REPORT] Released November 2010 (PDF 1.9MB)
Save our Cities - NATURE: International Weekly Journal of Science
This editorial in the Journal Nature and an associated package of articles about researchers and cities highlights the importance of understanding urban environments and their impacts.
Beth Nanni, MSc - Congratulations!
Congratulations to Beth Nanni from The University of Western Ontario who has successfully completed her MSc on "Source area variations in urban snow cover and its impact on the radiation budget". Congratulations from all your friends at EPiCC - we wish you all the best!
Rising Stars of Research 2010 - Eli Heyman - University of British Columbia
Congratulations to Eli Heyman from the University of British Columbia who was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Physical and Earth Sciences Division for his poster on "Modeling distribution of urban population for improved estimation of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions" at the Rising Stars of Research Competition held in Vancouver this month. This competition has become the most prestigious cross-disciplinary undergraduate research conference in Canada. Congratulations from all of your friends at EPiCC! [LINK] [POSTER]
Sunset Carbon Project - FINAL REPORT
Congratulations to The University of British Columbia EPiCC Team, Andreas Christen, Nicholas Coops and Ronald Kellett on their final report 'A Lidar-Based Urban Metabolism Approach to Neighbourhood Scale Energy and Carbon Emissions Modelling'. Contributing authors: Ben Crawford, Eli Heyman, Inna Olchovski, Rory Tooke and Michael van der Laan. [PDF 8.35 MB]
Bert Tanner Award Winner
Congratulations to Eric Christensen, MSc student from McGill University for winning the Bert Tanner Award for best student presentation from the Canadian Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology! Well done Eric!
Canadian Remote Sensing Society Master Thesis Award
Congratulations to Rory Tooke, MSc student from The University of British Columbia, on his award from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society for the 2009 best MSc Thesis. Rory will receive his award at the annual CRSS conference in Regina, Saskatchewan to be held on June 1-5, 2010. Well done Rory!
Modeling the Surface Energy Budget during the Thawing Period of the 2006 Montreal Urban Snow Experiment
Congratulations to Sylvie Leroyer, Jocelyn Mailhot, Stéphane Bélair, Aude Lemonsu and Ian B. Strachan on their recent publication 'Modeling the Surface Energy Budget during the Thawing Period of the 2006 Montreal Urban Show Experiment' in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Volume 49, Issue 1 (January 2010) [ABSTRACT] [FULL TEXT] [PDF 2.86M)
Vancouver EPiCC Technical Reports Released!
Congratulations to the University of British Columbia EPiCC team on the release of their Technical Reports. To access these reports, please see the links provided below.
- Technical Report #1 "Processing and Quality Control procedures of turbulent flux measurements during the Vancouver experiment" Ben Crawford, Andreas Christen & Rick Ketler Released Nov 2009 (PDF 621KB)
- Technical Report #2 "Soil properties at the Vancouver EPiCC Experimental Sites" Andreas Christen, Ben Crawford, Kate Liss & Chad Siemens Ver 1.2 Released February 2010 (PDF 9MB)
- Technical Report #3 "Vegetation characteristics at the Vancouver EPiCC experimental sites" Kate Liss, Rory Tooke, Nicolas Coops & Andreas Christen Released January 2010 (PDF 5.35MB) Enhanced Version April 2010
EPiCC Photo Gallery
- updated August 21, 2008 [LINK]
