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Smart farming (SF) has emerged as a scientific approach exploiting technology advances for the management of agricultural practices, focusing on the control of resources and chemicals used. There is still limited evidence in the scientific literature in regard to the efficiency of SF, particularly for targeted environmental issues, such as air pollutant emissions from agricultural activities. The present paper expoits quantitative data collected from questionnaires to farmers of 6 pilot areas in Greece, participating in the LIFE GAIA Sense project. Emissions and pollutant levels were calculated for two consecutive years in these pilot areas, namely 2019 (baseline year) and 2020, which is the first SF application year. The methodology for calculating realistic emissions data, following a combined tier 1/tier2 approach is presented. To this purpose, detailed activity data of the specific SF application areas related to agricultural activities were acquired, based on the responses of participating farmers to targeted questionnaires. Calculated emissions were used as input data for air quality modeling simulations to examine the efficiency of SF in reducing local pollutant concentrations. The results show significant emissions and concentrations reductions in five out of the six pilot areas, for all pollutants and greenhouse gases studied, due to the decrease in fuel consumption and N fertilizer applied, as a result of the farmers following the SF advice. Particularly for NH3, which is an agricultural air pollutant of concern due to its health and environmental impacts, emission reductions of around 30% (and by up to almost 60%) were calculated.

According to the Landfill Directive, the proportion of municipal waste disposed of in landfills should be reduced to 10% w/w or less of the total amount of municipal waste generated by 2035. It should be highlighted that even though the regional waste management plans in Greece took into consideration the recycling targets set by the European Union, the proportion of municipal waste disposed of by landfilling was about 80% w/w in 2020. The present study aims to introduce a methodological framework for the calculation of residues from facilities foreseen in regional waste management plans and the potential of its utilization for energy recovery. The methodology for the development and implementation of the decision support tool concerned the registration of treatment facilities, the estimation of recyclables and residues derived from them, the calculation of maximum volume or residues for achieving the recycling targets and the circular economy objective, the assessment of quality composition of residues, and the assessment of energy recovery potential. Up to 270 GWh of electricity per year could be generated from a supposed thermal treatment of residues from recycling, while targets concerning recycling and waste management in the frame of circular economy objective can been achieved. The proposed methodological framework can be utilized as a decision support tool by relevant decision makers, and can be applied both for the evaluation of the regional waste management plans, which directly affect national recycling and circular economy targets set by European Union environment policy.

There is much debate around promoting waste to energy incineration facilities in many communities globally, mainly because of social opposition against potential negative health effects of the operation of these installations close to urban areas. In this paper, a novel decision support approach is developed and its applicability is demonstrated for the greater Thessaloniki area, Greece. In this area, the incineration facilities are hotly debated, mainly due to the "Not In My Back Yard" syndrome related with health considerations. The exclusive method of treatment is landfilling. Health impacts and corresponding externalities attributed to the operation of an incineration facility are reliably estimated. Three potential alternative sites and three scenarios of emission rates are considered, depending on the abatement technology used. The estimated externalities are compared to the corresponding ones attributed to other pressures in the area. The "Years of Life Lost (YOLL)" indicator attributed to the operation of the facility is 2.8 YOLL in the worst-case scenario. This corresponds to a minimal added implication in comparison with the 11,044 YOLL estimated for the area due to the other environmental pressures (road traffic, space heating, industrial activity). The externalities ratio (externalities due to incineration facility/total externalities) for the region is approximately 0.03%. Thus, the impact of this operation on human health is negligible -and preferable to landfilling- even in the case that maximum emission rates are considered. Efforts should be targeted towards enhancing public awareness and militating the widely acknowledged "Not In My Back Yard" syndrome by local communities.

Mediterranean cities, having already suffered from climate change and at risk of being further affected if actions are not taken, need to reduce their emissions and set themselves on a path towards achieving the Paris Agreement ambition of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. There are several methodologies that have been developed recently for cities in order to set a science-based target in line with a 1.5 °C scenario, that can be adopted by Mediterranean cities. In this short communication, we have selected to refer to two of them with the aim of inspiring experts from Mediterranean cities and providing relevant tools and further learning resources in order to make this task achievable. The new framework is guiding cities towards a greener and more sustainable transition. With a concrete framework to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the Mediterranean Basin can follow the global push to net-zero emissions by mid-century.

This review provides a community’s perspective on air quality research focussing mainly on developments over the past decade. The article provides perspectives on current and future challenges as well as research needs for selected key topics. While this paper is not an exhaustive review of all research areas in the field of air quality, we have selected key topics that we feel are important from air quality research and policy perspectives. After providing a short historical overview, this review focuses on improvements in characterising sources and emissions of air pollution, new air quality observations and instrumentation, advances in air quality prediction and forecasting, understanding interactions of air quality with meteorology and climate, exposure and health assessment, and air quality management and policy. In conducting the review, specific objectives were (i) to address current developments that push the boundaries of air quality research forward, (ii) to highlight the emerging prominent gaps of knowledge in air quality research and (iii) and to make recommendations to guide the direction for future research within the wider community. This review also identifies areas of particular importance for air quality policy. The original concept of this review was borne at the International Conference on Air Quality 2020 (held online due to the COVID 19 restrictions during 18–26 May 2020), but the article incorporates a wider landscape of research literature within the field of air quality science. On air pollution emissions the review highlights, in particular, the need to reduce uncertainties in emissions from diffuse sources, particulate matter chemical components, shipping emissions and the importance of considering both indoor and outdoor sources. There is a growing need to have integrated air pollution and related observations from both ground based and remote sensing instruments, including especially those on satellites. The research should also capitalize on the growing area of lower cost sensors, while ensuring a quality of the measurements which are regulated by guidelines. Connecting various physical scales in air quality modelling is still a continual issue, with cities being affected by air pollution gradients at local scales and by long range transport. At the same time, one should allow for the impacts from climate change on a longer timescale. Earth system modelling offers considerable potential by providing a consistent framework for treating scales and processes, especially where there are significant feedbacks, such as those related to aerosols, chemistry and meteorology. Assessment of exposure to air pollution should consider both the impacts of indoor and outdoor emissions, as well as apply more sophisticated, dynamic modelling approaches. With particulate matter being one of the most important pollutants for health, research is indicating the urgent need to understand, in particular, the role of particle number and chemical components in terms of health impact, which in turn requires improved emission inventories and models for predicting high resolution distributions of these metrics over cities. The review also examines, how air pollution management needs to adapt to the above-mentioned new challenges and briefly considers the implications from the COVID-19 pandemic for air quality. Finally, we provide recommendations for air quality research and support for policy.

Large-eddy simulation (LES) provides a physically sound approach to study complex turbulent processes within the atmospheric boundary layer including urban boundary layer flows. However, such flow problems often involve a large separation of turbulent scales, requiring a large computational domain and very high grid resolution near the surface features, leading to prohibitive computational costs. To overcome this problem, an online LES–LES nesting scheme is implemented into the PALM model system 6.0. The hereby documented and evaluated nesting method is capable of supporting multiple child domains, which can be nested within their parent domain either in a parallel or recursively cascading configuration. The nesting system is evaluated by first simulating a purely convective boundary layer flow system and then three different neutrally stratified flow scenarios with increasing order of topographic complexity. The results of the nested runs are compared with corresponding non-nested high- and low-resolution results. The results reveal that the solution accuracy within the high-resolution nest domain is clearly improved as the solutions approach the non-nested high-resolution reference results. In obstacle-resolving LES, the two-way coupling becomes problematic as anterpolation introduces a regional discrepancy within the obstacle canopy of the parent domain. This is remedied by introducing canopy-restricted anterpolation where the operation is only performed above the obstacle canopy. The test simulations make evident that this approach is the most suitable coupling strategy for obstacle-resolving LES. The performed simulations testify that nesting can reduce the CPU time up to 80 % compared to the fine-resolution reference runs, while the computational overhead from the nesting operations remained below 16 % for the two-way coupling approach and significantly less for the one-way alternative.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a major problem of modern cities for many years. Thus, the development of optimal waste management strategies has been a priority for the European Commission, especially in the transition toward a circular economy. In this paper, an analysis of different MSW treatment methods that can be effectively implemented in the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM) is provided, and their comparison from an environmental point of view is performed. The assessment is based on real data indicated in the recently updated Greek National Waste Management Plan, whereas the different scenarios developed include landfilling without energy recovery, landfilling with energy recovery, recycling and secondary materials recovery, mechanical-biological treatment, bio-waste composting and anaerobic digestion with energy recovery, and incineration with energy recovery. The obtained results illustrate that efficient waste streams sorting is of vital importance for the effective implementation of an integrated waste management system toward the sustainable management of MSW.

We introduce a research framework for downscaling the predicted/simulated climate and atmospheric conditions as well as associated risk maps down to the 1x1 km (historic area) scale, merging them with geohazard maps and integrating them with site and structure specific multi-hazard vulnerability functions to determine the time-varying risk for historical cities. Applying atmospheric modelling for specific Climate Change (CC) scenarios at such refined spatial and time scales allows for an accurate quantitative impact assessment of the estimated micro-climatic and atmospheric stressors. The ambition of this work, performed under the framework of the HYPERION EU-funded project, is to produce a comprehensive tool to assess the threats of CC in tandem with other natural hazards, visualize the built heritage and cultural landscape under future climate scenarios, model the effects of different adaptation strategies, and ultimately prioritize any rehabilitation actions to best allocate funds in both pre- and post-event environments.

A great number of tools that assess sustainability exist. The analysis of 18 urban sustainability indices and 7 urban sustainability systems of indicators that satisfy the research criteria, reveals a great variation in terms of variables used to express the level of sustainability and an unbalanced reflection on the ‘’traditional’’ dimensions of sustainability. Tools are often applied at any scale, not respecting the initial level of design, disabling the introduction of thresholds. The paper, attempts a cross-cutting research in the area of urban design and planning, through the reinforcement of continuous monitoring and mainstreaming of sustainability policies, based on real data. It compiles variables composing the tools. Indicators are aggregated and reflection to the ‘’traditional’’ dimensions of sustainability, is revealed. The aim is to propose a set of commonly accepted indicators, through the implementation of an innovative ‘’meet in the middle approach’’ that leads to the characterisation of sustainability in European urban areas. This is attempted through a top-down approach that leads to a set of indicators that meet certain criteria and the integration of experts’ viewpoint (bottom-up). The paper prepares the ground for an index that will bridge the gap between sustainability assessment tools and holistic characterisation of cities.

Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment is one of the most rapidly developing waste streams worldwide. The aim of this paper is to investigate and evaluate the reuse methods of glass derived from electric lamp recycling. A detailed record of the various reuse methods of recycled glass is given, focusing on the use of glass in concrete industry, ceramic building materials and asphalt. Also, the necessary prerequisites, in order to produce final products within specifications, are highlighted for each case. The glass-cullet used in the research was produced in Oikokiklios S.A. lamp recycling company, where lamps are collected for recycling from all over Greece. Moreover, in order to investigate each case study, production data of three different companies (asphalt, cement, bricks) within close distance from Oikokiklios S.A. were used. As a result, three scenarios were studied in order to describe the glass-cullet reuse options and examine the benefits of introducing glass in each production process. More precisely, each scenario was evaluated concerning energy, environment and economic impact. The main conclusion of the research was that introducing glass is beneficial for all the above production processes leading to an important reduction of the released carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption.

The production of olive oil is considered to be one of the largest agricultural business sectors in the Mediterranean area. Apart from its significant impact on the economies of countries in Southern Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East, olive oil production also involves considerable social and environmental considerations. However, despite such importance, the environmental effects of olive oil production have not been studied as much other agricultural productions and farming systems, which are more characteristic of central and northern Europe. We present a thorough and systematic literature review of scientific publications with respect to the use of environmental tools in the life cycle of olive oil. The analysis takes into consideration the farming of olive trees, the manufacture of olive oil, packaging, transportation and reverse logistics. To that end, journal publications up to 2015 in this specific field are recorded and, at the same time, the most important environmental impacts are revealed and a gap analysis is carried out. The analysis conducted reveals that farming of olive trees (with pesticide use and waste/by-product production being the 'hottest' topics) and the manufacturing of olive oil (concentrating mostly on waste/by-product production and management) are the phases with the highest environmental focus from the scientific community. Moreover, gaps in the literature are detected mostly with respect to fuel consumption and the use and promotion of renewable energy sources in olive oil production. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Nowadays, over half of the world's population is living in urban areas. Urbanization has not led only to economic and social transformation, but also to high resource consumption and considerable environmental damage. This study aims to promote a holistic methodological approach in the urban context in order to foster policy modeling, efficient governance and sustainability. The paper has a twofold purpose: (i) to provide an approach for tractably characterizing the environmental performance of the building sector, and (ii) to promote sustainable practices towards greener buildings in urban areas. Towards this aim a composite indicator is analytically defined. The index combines the main environmental pressures that can be attributed to the building sector and is mathematically formulated to be finally implemented generically. Apart from energy, water consumption and waste generation, the presented scheme establishes links with LCA in order to include estimations of carbon footprint (CO2-eq). The formulated index is combined with the structure dialogue approach that has been developed within Urban Empathy, aMED Programme funded capitalization project focused on the efficiency of sustainable urban policies in the Mediterranean Basin. The structured dialogue process identifies key barriers to the implementation of the selected available practices into sustainable urban policies for the building sector. The paper highlights insights for common priorities, real pilot project results and their relation to implemented policies in order to foster strategic governance and policy modeling for specific areas under consideration.

The dominant influence of shipping emissions on air quality of port cities and their surrounding urban areas has been demonstrated in a number of case studies, based on both assessment of monitoring data and the application of modelling tools. In the present work, chemical dispersion calculations are used for assessing the impact of marine traffic on air quality of Piraeus, Greece, and the neighbouring areas of the Athens urban agglomeration. A comprehensive marine emissions inventory is compiled using a bottom-up methodology on the basis of AIS traffic data, as well as activity and source parameter data obtained from other national databases, covering both merchant and passenger traffic in the area. A set of dispersion calculations are performed using the MEMO/MARS-aero chemical dispersion model for the Attica region, revealing the dominating contribution of the port area on the pollutant levels over the southern part of the city of Piraeus. Assessment of a hypothetical scenario, involving the implementation of cold ironing for ships at berth, indicates that emissions in the hoteling phase are significantly reduced, resulting to a notable reduction of concentrations in the port and the surrounding areas.

Mind mapping tools are used to stimulate thinking about sustainability and define its significance for urban planning. Such tools are based on keywords that are identified and structured through dialogue-based procedures. The approach can be used also for switching between highlighting sectorial aspects, such as territorial management and urban design, social and economic cohesion and cross-sectorial aspects, such as sustainable mobility and energy efficiency. This paper emphasizes a structured dialogue with desicion-makers at national, regional and local levels, aimed at identifying what decision-makers really need to decide and the key barriers to the implementation of existing urban sustainability tools. This study was organized in four discrete steps. Initially, what EU urban sustainability projects can deliver (studies, methodologies, tools, policies, etc.) was identified. The deliverables were evaluated against certain criteria and categorized into cross-cutting aspects (territorial management and urban design, social and economic cohesion) and sectorial aspects (sustainable mobility, energy efficiency). The structured dialogue was implemented in parallel with the evaluation of the deliverables in order to match them with decision-makers’ needs, priorities and expectations. The ultimate goal was to develop and make available an operational Decision Support System (DSS) for public Authorities and urban planners, which combines their needs, priorities and expectations (structured dialogue results) with existing deliverables, developed within the framework of EU projects that up to now have had a low transferability and applicability rate.

The concept of urban sustainable development, although not new, has been expanded nowadays and included in the set of strategies adopted by a continuously increased number of governments and local authorities worldwide. Urban sustainable development derived from the need of local authorities to adopt alternative measures in order to make cities viable for their citizens. This study focuses on the home composting scheme which implemented in the municipality of Neapoli-Sykies in Northern Greece, while indicating the effect this programme had on citizens’ behaviour in terms of urban sustainability. The monitoring of this programme took place both at its early and middle phases of implementation by interviewing composting bins’ users. The outcome of the study reinforces the belief that building up knowledge should be the very first and main step before implementing such alternative schemes.

We present an overview of the modelling of particle number concentrations (PNCs) in five major European cities, namely Helsinki, Oslo, London, Rotterdam, and Athens, in 2008. Novel emission inventories of particle numbers have been compiled both on urban and European scales. We used atmospheric dispersion modelling for PNCs in the five target cities and on a European scale, and evaluated the predicted results against available measured concentrations. In all the target cities, the concentrations of particle numbers (PNs) were mostly influenced by the emissions originating from local vehicular traffic. The influence of shipping and harbours was also significant for Helsinki, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Athens, but not for London. The influence of the aviation emissions in Athens was also notable. The regional background concentrations were clearly lower than the contributions originating from urban sources in Helsinki, Oslo, and Athens. The regional background was also lower than urban contributions in traffic environments in London, but higher or approximately equal to urban contributions in Rotterdam. It was numerically evaluated that the influence of coagulation and dry deposition on the predicted PNCs was substantial for the urban background in Oslo. The predicted and measured annual average PNCs in four cities agreed within approximately ≤ 26 % (measured as fractional biases), except for one traffic station in London. This study indicates that it is feasible to model PNCs in major cities within a reasonable accuracy, although major challenges remain in the evaluation of both the emissions and atmospheric transformation of PNCs.

In the past decades several attempts were made for the ad-hoc application of systems of indicators as decision-support tools towards sustainable urban development. The selected systems’ results are often questioned, either for the suitability of the selected system per se, or for its ability to characterize effectively urban sustainability. In the attempt to satisfy the demanding needs of indicators’ systems, the primar reason for which such tools were introduced is often neglected and we enter into an endless, time consuming process of arithmetic calculations, forgetting about the need to link results to strategies and applicable measures. Citizens’ perception and social maturity to accept decisions, as well as the multiplying effect of decisions to the environment, applicability and funding availability, are criteria that need to be considered, before the uptake of decisions. The current study introduces an ‘‘Indicator System for Characterization of Urban Sustainability’’ (ICARUS). ICARUS is a system for the elaboration of sustainability profile of a city. It addresses the Euro-Mediterranean urban contexts that from an eco-systemic approach point of view interact in a unique way with sustainability pillars. It is designed for aiding the delivery of the sustainability agenda as well. The methodological framework leads to a prioritized list of sustainability measures that takes into consideration not only stand-alone data but also citizens’ perception and assessment against other important criteria. The methodology is applied for the case of Municipality of Thessaloniki, in Greece. Proximity to basic services, green element and space for pedestrians are the most highly hierarchized measures.

Globalisation combined with high urbanisation trends affects not only the traditional pillars of sustainability (environment, society, and economy), but also local identity. Customs and traditions are fading away and alienation is the result of new lifestyles deriving mainly from high interaction between locals and foreigners (focus on tourism). Facing the challenge of characterising urban sustainability, reflection on special characteristics of the urban fabric that are affected (spatial dimension of sustainability) is not always considered. Even though a lot of research is dedicated to the characterisation of urban areas&rsquo, sustainability, the element of local, regional, and macro-regional identity seems not to be systematically incorporated. This work attempts to develop and test a methodological framework to identify and prioritise the common symbolic elements that constitute the identity of a group of cities and that need to be sustained. The study focuses on the Euro-Mediterranean region. A survey is addressed to 64 scientists from five cities: Dubrovnik, Genoa, Rhodes, Valencia, and Venice. &ldquo, Urban structure&rdquo, is revealed as the most important element that constitutes the &ldquo, Mediterranean identity&rdquo, Moreover, the level of threat deriving from mass tourism on the &ldquo, is estimated. The survey provides insight into the definition of the spatial dimension of sustainability and the determination/weighting of the case-specific component of an integrated urban sustainability assessment tool.

Regions in Europe have developed expertise in the field of circular economy. There are several good models of ecosystems and networks, as well as best available technologies for biological materials which are in accordance to the requirements of the EU Circular Economy Package. However, these best practices are often created by separated actors or companies and known locally. Even in the same region, knowledge about these practices do not reach all potential actors. Hence, regional authorities are in a key role to transfer knowledge and promote the transition to circular economy through changes in policies. This study focuses on the regional circular economy models and best available technologies for biological streams in Europe and how the policy platforms in each region can be steered towards promoting good practices. The material presented is a part of the ongoing project BIOREGIO (www.interregeurope.eu/bioregio/), where bio-based circular economy is boosted through transfer of expertise about best practices, aiming at changing regional policies to support bio-based circular economy. Methodological insights of the project are highlighted. BIOREGIO is carried out in six European regions from Spain, Slovakia, Greece, Romania, France and Finland.

Interactions between different spatial and temporal scales play a major role in determining the flow structure over the urban canopy in densely built agglomerations. Aiming to address the limitations which arise as a result of the physical disparities between the different modelling scales, a two-way scheme has been introduced for coupling the mesoscale model MEMO and the microscale model MIMO, utilising a collection of interpolating metamodels. The coupled system was used to simulate meteorological fields over the Greater Paris area during a multi-day wintertime case study. Its performance as a meteorological driver model was further evaluated by introducing the calculated meteorological fields as driving input in air quality calculations performed using the Eulerian chemical dispersion model MARS-aero.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to put forward a methodological framework to provide a comparative assessment of available mitigation and adaptation strategies against climate change. Mitigation options aim at minimizing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, in an effort to reduce the rate of increase in global temperature. On the other hand, adaptation options relate to the ability of the natural or human systems to handle the impact of the climate change and to adjust to its effects, seeking to eliminate the adverse consequences and take advantage of any beneficial outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology focuses on specific parameters, leading to the most efficient package of alternatives for the area of Greece. The selection of the “optimal” ranking of alternatives in a defined strategy is a sophisticated procedure, and a multi-criteria decision-making process was established. A questionnaire was designed and used as input to the overall framework, based on specific decision criteria. Climate change experts gave their feedback via a face-to-face interview. ELECTRE III multi-criteria decision analysis was adopted for the comparative evaluation, as it fits best to complex environmental problems. An “optimal” sequence of mitigation and adaptation strategies was provided for Greece. Findings – The use of renewable energy sources, increase of energy efficiency and improved forest management – tree planting and rational water management – are among the most promising options to strategically plan climate change mitigation and adaptation for Greece. Originality/value – The presented study provides an insight into alternative mitigation and adaptation strategies against climate change. The use of the multi-criteria analysis is an innovative approach to outline the optimal bundle of strategies. The methodology focuses on specific parameters, leading to the most efficient package of measures for the area of Greece. Such an approach is implemented for the first time in Greece, at least up to the authors’ knowledge, and provides a basis for strategic governance and policy modeling for the area under consideration.

The present study aims to promote a methodological scheme to combine the main environmental pressures that can be attributed to tourism activity in order to characterize environmental sustainability for a defined area of concentrated tourism (DACT). The methodological framework is demonstrated in the prevalent tourism destination of Northern Greece, Chalkidiki. The approach puts forward the tourism environmental composite indicator (TECI) which is analytically defined, mathematically formulated and finally implemented for the case under study. TECI provides the basis for a comparative analysis for typical all-sized hotel categories in terms of their combined environmental pressure. Apart from energy and water consumption and waste generation, the presented scheme establishes links with life cycle assessment (LCA) in order to include estimations of carbon footprint (CO2-eq) for hotels’ accommodation and transport, embedded in the TECI concept. A questionnaire for hoteliers was designed for the above purposes, and was used as input, among other data, to the overall methodological approach. The hotel managers gave their feedback via a face-to-face interview. Different normalized key performance indicators, i.e., pressure per m2, pressure per room, pressure per guest night are combined in one single composite indicator. The relative significance of each environmental pressure considered is realized by embedding weighting factors in the TECI mathematical formulation. To demonstrate the methodology TECI provides a comparative analysis for typical all-sized hotel categories in Chalkidiki and concludes with characterizing the level of the environmental sustainability as very poor. The results provide a rich insight into the trade-offs/synergies between the main environmental pressures that can be attributed to tourism activity. The work presented adds up to the low number of respective implementations found in the literature, especially by combining the theoretical background of environmental indicators with LCA. Last but not least, the identification of environmental degradation “hot spots” is realized in order to provide insights for sustainable tourism practices to stakeholders of the tourism industry and highlight insights for strategic governance and policy modeling for the area under consideration.

The need for comprehensive prognostic meteorological models is paramount in various applications related to environmental assessment. The inclusion of urban land cover in the computational domain in mesoscale models introduces new challenges for accurately incorporating the complex interactions related to the dynamical and thermal effects of the urban canopy. Aiming to address these requirements, a new urban surface scheme was introduced in a mesoscale meteorological model incorporating parameterisations of the area-averaged effects of drag and turbulence production as well as an improved representation of the surface heat and moisture fluxes. In addition, an advanced data assimilation module was implemented for enabling the self-consistent estimation of anthropogenic heat fluxes on the basis of representative satellite data, as well as the introduction of resulting forcing in the surface energy budget. The enhanced version of the model was evaluated in two mesoscale applications covering the greater urban areas of Paris, France and Athens, Greece. The model was evaluated over the course of three periods of strong anticyclonic conditions, enabling a better assessment of the influence of urban effects. The results confirmed that the urban surface module enhancements led to a significant improvement of model performance. Finally, the assimilation of anthropogenic heat data in the model provided an improved capability of reproducing the observed spatial and temporal variation of surface temperature.