ABSTRACT
Urbanised areas have grown significantly throughout Europe. The European Environment Agency reports that between 1950 and 1990 urban area grew between 26 per cent (Sunderland, UK) and 270 per cent (Algarve, Portugal) (Gill et al., 2004). Urbanisation processes strongly impact the environment, mostly in negative ways. Climate is one component of the urban physical environment that may play a role in improving the quality of urban life and the sustainability of cities (Andrade, 2005). However, climate is not often taken into account in urban planning (Oke, 1984; Brazel and Martin, 1997; Eliasson, 2000; Mills, 2006; Oke, 2006) and there is hardly any legislation on climate quality in cities, compared to legislation on air quality and noise.
