Research groups
Current Projects:
HiTemp (PI: Funded by NERC Networks of Sensors: £610k)
The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a direct consequence of anthropogenic influences on our local climate. Many studies have been devoted to the study of UHI extent and magnitude, as well as the impacts increased urban temperatures have on meteorology, climatology, human health and society. Although the UHI phenomenon is well documented and studies have increased our understanding, the basic measurement of temperatures across urban areas remains very limited. Birmingham is the UK's second most populous city, with a population in excess of 1 million people and a well defined UHI. However, Birmingham has only two climate stations which when linked with the complex heterogeneous urban morphology results in extremely poor data coverage.
The overall aim of HiTemp is to provide a demonstration sensor network designed to measure air temperature across the Birmingham conurbation. Birmingham has been chosen for this study partly due to its size as the UK's second city but also due to the fact that it is politically homogenous and requires only the co-operation of a single local authority. HiTemp is working towards instrumenting Birmingham via nested arrays of sensors including over 30 weather stations plus an additional 200+ air temperature sites located on a citywide wi-fi network. The end result will be the Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory.
Internet Of Things (Co-I, Funded by Technology Strategy Board: £140k)
IOT literally means ‘things’ (e.g. sensors and other smart devices) which are connected to the internet. This may seem insignificant, but ‘things’ represent a new, and increasingly, critical infrastructure requiring a dedicated technological ecosystem. Indeed, since 2008, the number of ‘things’ has outnumbered users online. In the context of my research, an example of 'things' are the hundreds of innovative air temperature sensors and weather stations which are currently being installed as part of the Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory
We have been funded to partcipate in two 12 month demonstrator grants under the IoT call. The first project, Smart Streets, is worth £70k and explores the utility of such devices to be used in real world applications such as winter road maintenance and gully cleaning (partners include: Amey, Carillion, Balfour Beatty, InTouch). The second project, DISTANCE (Demonstrating the Internet of School Things – A National Collaborative Experience), also worth £70k, explores the ability for schools to measure and share data by creating an information hub in the cloud using an open-source and infinitely scalable application platform for themes such as transport, energy, weather and health. (Partners include: Intel, Cosm ,the OU, the geography collective and ScienceScope).
LivingRail (Co-I: Funded by FP7: £109k)
This study will develop scenarios on the state of living style, cultures, mobility and economic activities in Europe by 2050 and explore a vision on the future role of the environmentally friendly, electrified railways within them. The scenarios and visions are detailed by trends in society, policy, economics, spatial planning, urban development, technology and transport sector operations to gain profound understanding of the sector interrelations. With the help of these detailed assessments the project will eventually elaborate a pathway or “railmap” to approach the 2050 vision from today’s situation. The funding is particularly timely due to the recent £9bn railway investment announced by coalition in British railways which will see a number of rail-lines electrified over the next decade.
Other Recent Projects:
FUTURENET (Co-I: Funded by EPSRC: £1.4m)
This project aims to assess the future resilience of the UK transport network by taking into account the likely technology and infrastructure changes, as well as changes in climate and extreme weather events. Future Resilient Transport Networks (FUTURENET) is a four year research project, jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council as a part of the “Adaptation and Resilience to a Changing Climate” programme, which aims to provide such a vision and tools to assess and plan for the resilience of transport systems in future.
FUTURENET is led by the University of Birmingham with partners from Loughborough and Nottingham Universities, HR Wallingford, the British Geological Survey, and TRL Limited. The project actively involves a wider stakeholder group which includes Network Rail, Highways Agency, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and consultants WSP.
Current discussion about transport and climate change focuses on the impact of transport on climate change. FUTURENET recognises that climate change also has an impact on transport, and can be addressed as an engineering dimension derived from the interaction between climate design, weather events and the physical network, and a socio-economic dimension derived from the interaction between weather and climate and the patterns of transport demand. FUTURENET integrates both in assessing the future resilience of the UK transport system. In doing so, it “joins up” traditionally separated agendas and addresses the inter-sectoral consistency of planning assumptions. While it is impossible to accurately predict exactly what will happen in the future, it is possible to model a range of plausible scenarios both in transport infrastructure and climate to address the concern for resilience.
The overall aim of FUTURENET is to answer the questions: what will be the nature of the UK transport system in 2050, both in terms of its physical characteristics and its usage, and what will be the shape of the transport network in 2050 that will be most resilient to climate change?
Knowledge Transfer Partnership: E-ON Central Networks (PI: £120k)
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the University of Birmingham and E-ON, Central Networks evaluated the impact of urban heat islands and climate change on the aging rate of transformers in Birmingham. There are currently 2000 transformers in the Birmingham area, many of which are now over 40 years old; hence replacement is now becoming an important issue. For this to be done successfully, the life cycles of existing transformers requires quantification taking into account various scenarios relating to climate change and urban heat island effects. This project sinvestigated the relationship between weather conditions and asset temperatures, using these relationships to make projections for various climate scenarios so that asset life cycles could be approximated.
Cross Disciplinary Feasibility Account (Co-I: EPSRC: £200k)
This project investigated improving local resilience through innovation. A series of stakeholder workshops and multi-disciplinary viewpoint papers were produced to ascertain the potential of 'bottom-up' approaches in improving our local infrastructure.
Muller, C.L., Chapman, L., Young, D.T., Grimmond, C.S.B., Cai, X. (In Press) Towards a standardised metadata protocol for urban meteorological networks. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Muller, C.L., Chapman, L., Young, D.T., Grimmond, C.S.B., Cai, X. (In Press) Sensors & The City: A Review of Urban Climatological Sensor Networks. International Journal of Climatology
Chapman, L., Azevedo, J.A., Prieto-Lopez, T. (In Press) Urban heat & critical infrastructure networks: A viewpoint. Urban Climate
Hammond, D., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. (In Press) Improving estimates of surface roughness length using LIDAR data. Meteorological Applications
Kidd, C. & Chapman, L. (In Press) Urban climate station site selection through combined digital surface model and sun angle calculations. Meteorological Applications
Hooper, E., Chapman, L. & Quinn, A.D. (In Press) Investigating the impacts of precipitation on vehicle speeds on UK motorways. Meteorological Applications
Tomlinson, C.J., Prieto-Lopez, T., Bassett, R., Chapman, L., Cai, X., Thornes, J.E., Baker, C.J., (2013) Showcasing urban heat island work in Birmingham – measuring, monitoring, modeling and more. Weather 68:44-49
Ryley, T.R. & Chapman, L. (2012) Transport and Climate Change. Emerald, UK. 380pp
Rogers, C.D.F., Bouch, C., Williams, S., Barber, A.R.G., Baker, C.J., Bryson, J.R., Chapman, D.N., Chapman, L., Coaffee, J. Jefferson, I. & Quinn A.D. (2012) Resistance and Resilience – Paradigms for Critical Local Infrastructure. Proceedings of the ICE: Municipal Engineer 165:73-83
Tomlinson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E., Baker, C.J., Prieto-Lopez, T. (2012) Comparing night time satellite land surface temperature from MODIS and ground measured air temperature across a conurbation. Remote Sensing Letters 3:657-666
Kidd, C. & Chapman, L. (2012) Derivation of sky view factors from LIDAR data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 33:3640-3652
Anifowose, B., van der Horst, D, Lawler, D., & Chapman, L. (2012) Attacks on oil transport pipelines in Nigeria: a quantitative exploration and possible explanation of observed patterns. Applied Geography 32:636-651
Tomlinson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Baker, C.J. (2012) Derivation of Birmingham’s summer surface urban heat island from MODIS satellite images. International Journal of Climatology 32:214-224
Chapman, L., Collier, C.G., Power, C.H. & Burt. P. (2011) Special Issue: Sensing the weather. Meteorological Applications 18:251-406
Tomlinson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Baker, C.J. (2011) Including the urban heat island in spatial heat health risk assessment strategies: a case study for Birmingham, UK. International Journal of Health Geographies 10:42
Tomlinson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Baker, C.J. (2011) Remote sensing land surface temperature for meteorology and climatology: a review. Meteorological Applications 18:296-306
Hammond, D., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. (2011) Parameterising road construction in route-based road weather models: Can ground penetrating radar provide any answers? Measurement Science and Technology 22:5
Andersson, A.K. & Chapman, L. (2011) The use of a temporal analogue to predict future traffic accidents and winter road conditions in Sweden. Meteorological Applications 18:125-136
Chapman, L. & Thornes, J.E. (2011) What resolution do we need for a route-based road weather decision support system? Theoretical & Applied Climatology 104:551-559
Fox, T. & Chapman, L. (2011) Engineering Geo-engineering. Meteorological Applications 18:1-8
Andersson, A.K. & Chapman, L. (2011) The impact of climate change on winter road maintenance and traffic accidents in West Midlands, UK. Accident Analysis and Prevention 43:284-289
Anifowose, B., Chapman, L., Lawler, D., & van der Horst, D (2011) Pipeline interdiction and bridging in Nigeria: is a modification to the spatial connectivity matrix model required? Journal of Transport Geography.19:179-184
Ghelli, A., Chapman, L. & Keeling, S. (2010) Special Issue: Communicating weather information and impacts. Meteorological Applications 17:125-250
Thornes, J.E., Bloss, W., Buzar, S, Cai, X., Chapman, L., Clark, J., Dessai, S. Du, S., van der Horst, D., Kendall, M., Kidd, C. & Randalls, S. (2010) Communicating the value of atmospheric services. Meteorological Applications 17:243-250
Hammond, D., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & White, S.P. (2010) Verification of route-based winter road maintenance weather forecasts. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 100:371-384
Baker, C.J., Chapman, L. Quinn, A.D., & Dobney, K. (2010) Climate change and the rail industry. Proc. IMechE, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 224:519-528
Jaroszweski, D., Chapman, L. & Petts, J. (2010) Assessing the potential impact of climate change on transportation: The need for an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Transport Geography 18:331-335
Dobney, K., Baker, C.J., Chapman, L. & Quinn, A.D. (2010) The future cost to the UK's railway network of heat related delays and buckles caused by the predicted increase in high summer temperatures due to climate change. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F, Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit 224:25-34.
Dobney, K., Baker, C.J., Quinn, A.D. & Chapman, L. (2009) Quantifying the effects of increased summer temperatures due to climate change on buckling and rail related delays in south-east UK. Meteorological Applications 16:245-251
Thornes, J.E. & Chapman, L. (2008) XRWIS: A new paradigm for road and rail severe weather prediction in the United Kingdom. Geography Compass 2:1012-1026
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E., Huang, Y, Sanderson, V.L., Cai, X., & White, S.P (2008) Modelling of rail surface temperatures. Theoretical and Applied Meteorology 92:121-131
Chapman, L. (2008) An introduction to ‘upside-down’ remote sensing. Progress in Physical Geography 32:529-542
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E., Muller, J.P. & McMuldroch, S. (2007) Potential applications of thermal fisheye imagery in urban environments Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 4(1): 56-59
Hammond, D., Chapman, L., Baker, A., Thornes, J.E. & Sandford, A. (2007) Fluorescence of road salt additives: potential applications for residual salt monitoring. Measurement Science and Technology 18:239-244
Chapman, L (2007) Potential Applications of near-infrared hemispherical imagery in forest environments. Agricultural & Forest Meteorology 143:151-156
Chapman, L. (2007) Climate Change and Transport: A Review. Journal of Transport Geography 15:354-367
Handa, H., Chapman L. & Yao X. (2006) Robust route optimisation for gritting/salting trucks: A CERCIA experience. Computational Intelligence Magazine. 1(1):6-9
Handa, H., Lin, D., Chapman L. & Yao X. (2006) Robust salting route optimisation using evolutionary algorithms. 2006 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE CEC 2006. 1:10455-10462
Chapman, L. & Thornes, J.E. (2006) A geomatics based road surface temperature prediction model. Science of the Total Environment 360:68-80
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & White, S.P (2006) Thermal imaging of railways to identify track sections prone to buckling. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F, Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit 220:317-327
Thornes, J.E., Cavan, G. & Chapman, L. (2005) XRWIS: The use of geomatics to predict winter road surface temperatures in Poland. Meteorological Applications 12:83-90
Handa, H., Chapman L. & Yao X. (2005) Dynamic salting route optimisation using evolutionary computation. 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE CEC 2005.1:158-165
Chapman, L. & Thornes, J.E. (2005) The influence of traffic on road surface temperatures: Implications for thermal mapping studies. Meteorological Applications 12:371-380
Chapman, L. & Thornes, J.E. (2004) Real time sky-view factor calculation and approximation. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 21: 730-741
Chapman, L. & Thornes, J.E. (2003) The use of geographical information systems in climatology and meteorology. Progress in Physical Geography 27: 313-330
Bradley, A.V., Thornes, J.E., Chapman, L., Unwin, D. & Roy, M. (2002) Modelling spatial and temporal road thermal climatology in rural and urban areas using a GIS. Climate Research 22:41-55
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Bradley, A.V. (2002) Sky-view factor approximation from GPS receivers. International Journal of Climatology 22: 615-621
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Bradley, A.V. (2001) Rapid determination of canyon geometry parameters for use in surface radiation budgets. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 69: 81-89
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Bradley, A.V. (2001) Modelling of road surface temperatures from a geographical parameter database. Part 1: Statistical. Meteorological Applications 8: 409-419
Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E. & Bradley, A.V. (2001) Modelling of road surface temperatures from a geographical parameter database. Part 2: Numerical. Meteorological Applications 8: 421-436
Bradley, A.V, Thornes, J.E. & Chapman, L. (2001) Variation and prediction of urban canyon geometry from sky-view factor transects. Atmospheric Science Letters 2: 155-165
Chapman, L. (2000) Assessing topographic exposure. Meteorological Applications 7:335-340.