Influence of Urban Canyons over Micrometeorological Variables in the Medioeval Italian City of Bologna

A prototypical instrumental array was deployed in two of Bologna’s medieval city centre urban canyons (Strada Maggiore and Via Guerrazzi) to analyse a set of micrometeorological variables and particulate matter trends via handheld optical particle counters. The measurements aimed to characterize the local microenvironment and understand how it was tied to the canyons’ features and orientation. The canyons’ features have an effect over the radiative-thermal environment and the local stability of the surface layer, but particulate matter trends are driven by different forcings and do not show strong relationships with the local micrometeorology.