{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T10:35:56Z","timestamp":1782124556043,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,2,2]],"date-time":"2015-02-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1422835200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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 WUDAPT is a description of cities based on the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme, which classifies natural and urban landscapes into categories based on climate-relevant surface properties. This methodology provides a culturally-neutral framework for collecting information about the internal physical structure of cities. Moreover, studies have shown that remote sensing data can be used for supervised LCZ mapping. Mapping of LCZs is complicated because similar LCZs in different regions have dissimilar spectral properties due to differences in vegetation, building materials and other variations in cultural and physical environmental factors. The WUDAPT protocol developed here provides an easy to understand workflow; uses freely available data and software; and can be applied by someone without specialist knowledge in spatial analysis or urban climate science. The paper also provides an example use of the WUDAPT project results.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi4010199","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,2,2]],"date-time":"2015-02-02T10:27:36Z","timestamp":1422872856000},"page":"199-219","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":617,"title":["Mapping Local Climate Zones for a Worldwide Database of the Form and Function of Cities"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"4","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8802-7934","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Benjamin","family":"Bechtel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Bundesstra\u00dfe 55, Hamburg 20146, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"Alexander","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Irish Climate Analysis & Research Units, Department of Geography, Room 1.8 Laraghbryan House, Maynooth University, Kildare, Ireland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"J\u00fcrgen","family":"B\u00f6hner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Bundesstra\u00dfe 55, Hamburg 20146, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jason","family":"Ching","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olaf","family":"Conrad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Bundesstra\u00dfe 55, Hamburg 20146, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Johannes","family":"Feddema","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66049, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gerald","family":"Mills","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School Of Geog, Planning & Env Policy, Newman Building, UCD, Belfield Dublin 4, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2665-7065","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Linda","family":"See","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ecosystems Services and Management Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, Laxenburg 2361, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iain","family":"Stewart","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, Toronto,  ON M5S 2J7, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,2,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1849","DOI":"10.1002\/joc.1604","article-title":"Cities as agents of global change","volume":"27","author":"Mills","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. 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