Missions

Increasing urban vegetation is widely promoted as an adaptation strategy to face climate change, mainly because of its potential to (1) sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and (2) improve evaporative cooling and positively influence the water cycle in cities. The greening of buildings, i.e., the installation of green envelopes on roofs and walls, can make a significant contribution to urban green infrastructure. However, the benefits of green building envelopes have not been studied and quantified in an integrated manner, taking into account the couplings between energy, water, and carbon exchanges in the envelopes. As part of the GREENVELOPES project, the TEB urban canopy model (Masson 2000, de Munck et al. 2013, Redon et al. 2017 and 2020) has been improved for the coupled calculation of radiative, energy, hydrological, and carbon fluxes from green roofs (Mirebeau et al. 2025), and more recently from green facades. These developments have been evaluated at the building scale by comparison with experimental data collected at two sites in Germany.

The objective of the mission is to transpose these exchange processes to the urban scale through numerical modeling of greening strategies in two cities, Toulouse (France) and Berlin (Germany), to assess the impact of the two types of green envelopes on carbon sequestration and evaporative cooling potential compared to other types of urban vegetation. The work will consist of implementing a hectometer-resolution meteorological modeling configuration using the MesoNH research model (Lac et al. 2018) coupled with the recently improved TEB urban model. For each study city, a heatwave episode will be selected and modeled for the reference case and one or more greening scenarios. The simulations will be compared to quantify the benefits of green envelopes for two types of cities in different geographical and climatic contexts.

Bibliography
de Munck et al. 2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-6-1941-2013
Lac et al. 2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1929-2018
Masson 2000, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1002463829265
Mirebeau et al. 2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-5329-2025
Redon et al. 2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-385-2017
Redon et al. 2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-385-2020

Activités

The work proposed includes the following activities: work on computer, participation in team meetings and GREENVELOPES project meetings (see below), coordination with the project partners, oral or poster communication at scientific conferences, publication of scientific articles, contribution to project deliverables.

Compétences

Solid skills in the knowledge and understanding of interaction processes between land surfaces and the atmosphere are required, as well as expertise in numerical modeling of atmospheric physics and in data processing and analysis. It is also important to have an appetite for teamwork and be ready to interact with different partners. Good writing and oral presentation skills in French and English are also expected.

Contexte de travail

The Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (CNRM) is a joint Météo-France and CNRS laboratory located in Toulouse, France. It is one of the leading atmosphere and climate science research institutes in Europe. It provides a highly international and interdisciplinary environment for conducting scientific research as well as access to great scientific facilities.
Within the laboratory, the successful fellow will join the VILLE team, whose activities focus on the study and modeling of urban climate at different spatial and temporal scales. The successful candidate will work under the principal scientific direction of Aude Lemonsu, but numerous interactions are envisaged with the rest of the team in terms of sharing knowledge, expertise and tools. The expected work is also central to the GREENVELOPES research project (bilateral project ANR-DFG 2022-2026) and will involve links with the various experimental and modelling partners. Travel for project and working meetings could take place during the course of the contract.