Stevan Savic

• PhD in Geosciences
• full professor at University of Novi Sad

In 2014, urban climate monitoring systems were established in two neighboring European cities (Novi Sad, Serbia; Szeged, Hungary) based on Local Climate Zones (LCZ) classification system, GIS model calculations and fieldwork. Seven built LCZ types in the built-up area of Novi Sad (112 km 2) and two LCZ land cover types in nonurban environment in th...

The main objective of this study is to determine and analyze cold and warm air temperature spells in the last 6 years (2007–2012) and reveal their impact on electrical energy consumption in a small-sized city such as Sombor (Serbia) with less than 50,000 inhabitants. Hourly air temperature values and electrical energy consumption data have been use...

In this commentary, we address the environmental inequalities in Europe, specifically related to air pollution exposure and related health burden disparities between Western and Eastern Europe. We first, provide a background for the causes of these inequalities and links with socioeconomic and demographic circumstances. We showcase, in more detail,...

Extreme temperatures and heatwaves are recognized as one of the deadliest weather-related hazards. The first of its kind in the Balkans region, this study explores the effects of heatwave timing, duration, and intensity on mortality in Serbia. Using daily all-cause mortality data and mean temperature, a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) evalu...

Urban downtown areas are often overheated and contribute to the creation of urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. Implementation of trees is considered an effective way to mitigate UHI and improve outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) in densely built-up areas. This study aims to investigate the potential of applying additional trees in planters to mitigate...

Remote sensing techniques have emerged as powerful tools for urban forest monitoring, offering a comprehensive and efficient method for assessing and managing urban green spaces. Among others, this technology provides high-resolution satellite images that can be used to map the extent of urban forests and assess their distribution across the city w...

The thermal characteristics of urban areas diff er from the thermal characteristics of the surroundings. The phenomenon of urban heat islands exists both in large urban areas and in smaller medium-sized areas. In the research of urban heat islands, there are two main approaches – direct measurements of air temperature in the field and reading tempe...

Increasing thermal risk in cities is endangering the health and well-being of urban population and is driven by climate change and intensive urbanization. Therefore, if we plan to enlarge the capacities of cities to be more climate resilient in the 21st century, more detailed monitoring of urban climate on local and micro scales is needed. For this...

Increasingly hot summer days and urbanization in cities will further modify urban thermal conditions, consequently amplifying urban-rural and intra-urban thermal differences. Therefore, climate monitoring of urban areas is necessary, i.e., monitoring on micro-scale, near regional or local levels. The Novi Sad Urban Climate Lab has developed the Mob...

Introduction: Cities are under the pressure of intensive urbanization and modified environmental conditions, which are expressed due to climate change, intensification of traffic and industry, and constant reduction of green areas, and that lead to more intense urban heat island (UHI) effect. Furthermore, some research has shown that a large number...

Background Nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban areas offer an opportunity to improve environmental conditions and to reduce CO2 emissions towards establishing climate-neutral cities in the next few decades. Furthermore, the implementation of NBSs—vertical or horizontal green infrastructures on public facilities—could in particular improve both cl...

Increasing thermal risk in cities is endangering the health and well-being of urban population and is driven by climate change and intensive urbanization. Therefore, if we plan to enlarge the capacities of cities to be more climate resilient in the 21st century, more detailed monitoring of urban climate on local and micro scales is needed. For this...

Climate change has been recognized as an important issue in public health, with particular concerns being raised about the effects of heat and cold extremes on health, and about seasonal changes over the year and their associations with increased mortality and hospitalizations. This paper explored the relationship between physiological equivalent t...

In urban environments, people's exposure to harmful ambient conditions and noise represents a particular challenge in the modern world. Global climate change and increasing population density, along with the increasing number of vehicles in urban areas, are constantly exacerbating this problem. The idea of this study is to assess the effects of tem...

Thermal comfort assessments at local or micro-scales within urban areas can provide crucial insights for the urban adaptation strategies pertaining to climate-conscious urban planning and public health. However, the availability of long-term or mid-term daily or hourly meteorological data sets from urban environments remains a significant challenge...

The subject of the research paper is the use of remote sensing in monitoring and analyzing the impact of climate change on the occurrence of extreme precipitation, and the cause-and-effect occurrence of floods in the area of the Sana River basin in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The goal is to process the “product” of remote sensing to identify the time i...

Globalne klimatske promjene su proces koji neminovno zahvata prostor evropskog kontinenta, pa samim tim i Bosnu i Hercegovinu i druge zemlje Zapadnog Balkana, koje su smještene na prostoru jugoistočne Evrope. Sve intenzivniji i dugotrajniji topli talasi (naročito tokom ljetnjeg perioda), pojava intenzivnih hladnih talasa zimi, intenzivni kratkotraj...

The current state of weather-induced agricultural losses, water use for irrigation, the appearance of new invasive species and disease vectors (strongly depending on micrometeorological conditions), new environmental zoning of plant diseases and pests, deforestation, increased urbanization, rural-to-urban migration and increased urban energy consum...

In October 2021, the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) has awarded four years (2021-2025) of funding to the "FAIR network of micrometeorological measurement" (FAIRNESS) Action to increase readiness, support knowledge-exchange and foster a strong background for future research and innovation focused on micrometeorological measure...

Hot summers with intensive heatwaves and extreme temperatures lead to strong heat-related health problems across European cities. Up to now, a limited number of studies have investigated the potential of nature-based solutions to mitigate extreme heat and to quantify their cooling potential in the cities of Serbia. Most of the published researched...

Projections of climate change indicate that there will be an increase in the frequency and intensity of rainfall events across Europe (particularly heavy precipitations), and with ongoing urbanization, the problem of pluvial flooding will certainly require more attention. There are currently about 20 completed or active international projects relat...

Urbanization of the cities is an ongoing trend that tends to continue during the 21st century, even though it is related to various urban issues such as air pollution, noise pollution, biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, health risks, etc. Nature-based solutions emerged as popular concept that relies on implementing natural assets and proces...

The health, well-being and comfort of urban residents are under a substantial pressure from increasing urban heat due to the intensified urbanization and climate change. Nevertheless, many open questions remain as to why, when and where heat stress occurs in the city. To answer these questions, detailed spatial and temporal meteorological data are...

This data article describes two groups of datasets which capture, firstly - 10-minutes air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (RH) data from 27 urban and non-urban sites over a period of 3.5 years covering 2014–2018; and secondly - hourly Ta data from 12 urban sites over a period of 2 years covering 2016 and 2017. Both datasets are from urban m...

In the context of recent climate change, temperature-attributable mortality has become an important public health threat worldwide. A large number of studies in Europe have identified a relationship between temperature and mortality, while only a limited number of scholars provided evidence for Serbia. In order to provide more evidence for better m...

In the last one or one and a half decade the urban climate monitoring has growing rapidly by deployment the Urban meteorological networks (UMNs) in the cities worldwide. These UMNs, that represented from a dozen to few hundred stations with various sensor types, mostly monitored local level climate conditions, but during the time their datasets sta...

Impact of climate change on human health have become one of the most important concerns in 21st century, particularly in heat-related mortality. It is well documented that heatwaves (HW) are associated with increased mortality. In order to better understand heatwave alerts in Serbia, we examined mortality risk in relation with HW characteristics: i...

Increasing thermal risk in cities is endangering the health and well-being of urban population and is driven by climate change and intensive urbanization. Therefore, if we plan to enlarge the capacities of cities to be more climate resilient in the 21 st century, more detailed monitoring of urban climate on local and micro scales is needed. For thi...

A combination of increasingly hot summer days and urbanization processes in cities will further modify urban thermal conditions compared to climate in rural/non-urbanized environments, and as a consequence urban-rural and intra-urban thermal differences will be amplified. Obviously, that will increase heat load in cities and will intensify problems...

In October 2021, the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) has awarded four years (2021-2025) of funding to the “FAIR network of micrometeorological measurement” (FAIRNESS). The project action supporting knowledge exchange and foster a strong background for future research and innovation focused on micrometeorological measurements a...

The climate risk profile and climate change projections indicate that Serbia will face a high probability of continued temperature increase, which will be intensified in urban areas due to the urban heat island effect. To develop heat mitigation strategies and guidelines for Serbian cities, detailed spatial and temporal micrometeorological data are...

Increased intensity and frequency of extreme heat events are especially pronounced in urban areas where most of the global population live. These events demand proper response of authorities and businesses to improve outdoor thermal comfort and mitigate the heat. In this study we discuss the effectiveness of evaporative cooling misters in improving...

Extreme Heat in Serbia" is a short-term project realized in 2022 and financed by the American Red Cross and the Global Disaster Preparedness Center. Before the project, there were only a limited number of studies investigating heat-related mortality and hospital admissions in Serbia. The project filled this research gap by identifying the heat-heal...

Long- and short-term biometeorological conditions in the Republic of Serbia were analyzed using official meteorological data from numerous weather stations located across the country. Selected biometeorological indices HUMIDEX, Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET), and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) are calculated based on air tempe...

The development of a knowledge repository for climate science data is a multidisciplinary effort between the domain experts (climate scientists), data engineers who's skills include design and building a knowledge repository, and machine learning researchers who provide expertise on data preparation tasks such as gap filling and advise on different...

To improve the urban environment in general and contribute to the greening of urban areas in the cities of Central and Southeastern Europe, an international project was implemented in the period 2019-2022. The GReENERGY project is an international/cross-border project that is implemented in Europe, with the aim to improve the environmental conditio...

Incorporating green infrastructure such as green walls and green roofs as nature-based solutions for the urban environment has the potential to mitigate climate change, enhance climate resilience, increase urban circularity and biodiversity, reduce urban heat island (UHI) and surface urban heat island (SUHI) intensities, reduce energy consumption i...

Intensive urbanization and climate change are issues that are affecting majority of the urban areas around the world. Traditional artificial materials that are dominant in most of the cities are enhancing thermal stress that is very pronounced in the summertime especially in urban areas. Different local and micro locations develop their own specifi...

The development of a knowledge repository for climate science data is a multidisciplinary effort between the domain experts (climate scientists), data engineers whos skills include design and building a knowledge repository, and machine learning researchers who provide expertise on data preparation tasks such as gap filling and advise on different...

Due to the intensive growth of the city population, and thus the very intensive process of urbanization, in the last few decades, there is a need to establish a concept that would enable further development of society, but on the principles of sustainability and in accordance with nature-based solutions. High environmental pressure in urban areas i...

This dataset captures hourly air temperature data from 12 urban sites in Novi Sad (Serbia) over a period of 2 years covering 2016 and 2017. There are 2 datasets in the collection: one dataset provides details about the 12 sites at which the temperature sensors are placed (Table 1, excel file), while the second file contains air temperature data at...

Increased temperature risk in cities threatens the health and well-being of urban population and is fueled by climate change and intensive urbanization. Consequently, further steps must be taken for assessing temperature conditions in cities and their association with public health, in order to improve public health prevention at local or regional...

According to climate change, an increase in various extreme climate and weather events, such as heavy precipitation, storm weather, longer drought period, tropical cyclones, snow blizzard, and among them more frequent and severe heat waves, can be expected in coming decades (IPCC, 2021)........

The paper presents projected changes in air temperature and precipitation in the Vrbas River basin according to the RCP8.5 climate scenario. Based on satellite data, maps were created for average monthly, seasonal and annual values of air temperature, total precipitation and snow cover height for three periods: 2011‒2040, 2041‒2071. and 2071‒2100....

Floods are the most frequent and devastating natural hazard event in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The detected increase in extreme precipitation over the study area in the last period has altered flood event patterns due to climate changes. Higher frequency of flood events and lack of flood protection infrastructure has a severe impact on socio-economic...

Due to rapid urbanisation, urban microclimate research has become increasingly popular in the last decade. Significant variation in microclimate conditions can be created due to diversity in urban geometry and it can affect outdoor thermal comfort. Biometeorological measurements and survey were conducted in different urban settings (square, park, s...

Climate change at the regional and local levels is forcing strong implementation of urban adaptation strategies related to climate-conscious urbanization and public health. Accordingly, the application of parameters that assess thermal stress in urban areas, such as outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) indices, is of paramount importance. As a contributio...

Most of the world’s population now lives in urban areas that have different urban climates and environmental characteristics with elevated temperatures, frequent heat stress, and air pollution due to urbanization and climate change. These processes affect the daily lives of citizens worldwide, however, detailed spatial and temporal meteorological a...

Extreme temperature events driven by climate change have been recognized as an important concern for the public health, and these threats have been particularly identified in rapidly growing urban settlements around the world. The impact of extremely hot and cold weather, as well as seasonal air temperature changes are associated with increased mor...

Assessment of climate in urban environments strongly relies on the quality and resolution of meteorological data. Intensive urbanization processes in urban environments affect and modify local climates so the traditional weather stations located on the outskirts of the urban areas can hardly be considered in the analysis of local climate. Technolog...

Detailed spatial and temporal micrometeorological data are crucial for tracking extreme heat and evaluating the heat mitigation potential of different strategies in cities. Field campaigns were performed in the city of Novi Sad (Serbia) on hot summer days during the period 2020-2022 to quantify the thermal conditions across the city. The micrometeo...

A comprehensive analysis of air temperature (Ta) dynamics in "local climate zones" (LCZs) of Novi Sad (Serbia) was based on measurements from 17 stations during 3 years. Hourly changes of Ta , cooling rates (CR), heating rates (HR), and urban heat island (UHI) intensity were assessed on seasonal and annual level and during heat wave (HW) and cold w...

Reliable and sufficient knowledge on environmental conditions delivered from micrometeorological and microclimatological data plays a central role in assessing and modelling trends and effects of climate change and adverse weather on the environment. Enormous efforts have already been made to centralise data from ground-based and satellite measurem...

In this study, air temperature and precipitation seasonality and their correlation with large-scale atmospheric circulations over the Sava River Basin (SRB), i.e., over the areas of Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia, are analyzed. We used daily air temperature and precipitation measurements from 12 meteorological stations for the period from 1981 to 20...

Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources for reliable and sustainable water supplies in the world. To understand the use of water resources, the fundamental characteristics of groundwater need to be analyzed, but in many cases, in situ data measurements are not available or are incomplete. In this study, we used GIS and fuzzy anal...

Urban climate (UC) is an increasingly important scientific field that addresses the interactions between cities and the atmosphere. The "intensification" of UC research in recent decades has certainly been motivated by intensified urbanization and climate change that, for example, impact human health and comfort, air quality and energy consumption...

Urban overheating (due to climate change and urbanization) and COVID-19 are two converging crises that must be addressed in tandem. Fine-scale, place-based, people-centric biometeorological and behavioral data are needed to implement context-specific preventative measures such as mask-wearing. This study collected local biometeorological measuremen...

Intensive urbanization and global warming are impacting the health and well-being of urban population. Nevertheless, urban environments with different designs will have different micro and local climate conditions. This study used data from micrometeorological measurements performed in different urban spaces (downtown, urban park, riverside) in Ban...

Climate change is one of the largest environmental issues causing hydroclimatological extremes such as floods, droughts, and aridity. The aim of this study is to assess the observed and projected climate changes in Bačka (Serbia). Detailed trend analyses and possible climate scenarios over Bačka has not been presented up to now. In this paper, four...

This study aims to investigate spatial and temporal dynamics and relationship between air temperature and five air humidity parameters (relative humidity, water vapor pressure, absolute humidity, specific humidity, and vapor pressure deficit) in Novi Sad, Serbia, based on two-year data (Dec 2015-Dec 2017). The analysis includes different urban area...

The loess sequence preserved in the Požarevac brickyard in northeastern Serbia comprises eight loess units separated by seven paleosols. Geochronological investigation using amino acid racemization and luminescence dating support stratigraphic correlations of loess units L3, S2LL1 and L1 at the Požarevac section with loess of glacial cycles E [Mari...

Temporal and spatial variability of annual and seasonal precipitation from 71 stations located in Western Balkan (WB) countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro) and their correlations with nine atmospheric circulation patterns was examined for the period 1950-2016. Annual precipitation increased significantly throughout the WB (from...

In the light of climate change and burgeoning urbanization, heat loads in urban areas have emerged as serious issues, affecting the well-being of the population and the environment. In response to a pressing need for more standardised and communicable research into urban climate, the concept of local climate zones (LCZs) has been created. This conc...

An urban environment defines a specific micro-climate which directly affects the quality of life in urbanized areas and often has a negative impact on urban populations. Phenomena like urban heat and surface heat islands are direct products of an urban lifestyle. Urban meteorological networks (UMNs) are a tool that can help to better understand and...

The Urban Heat Islands (UHI) effect is a microclimatic phenomenon that especially affects urban areas. It is associated with significant temperature increases in the local microclimate, and may amplify heat waves. Due to their intensity, UHI causes not only thermal discomfort, but also reductions in the levels of life quality. This paper reviews th...

A comprehensive analysis of meteorological (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and global radiation) and outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) conditions (Physiological Equivalent Temperature and Mean Radiant Temperature) was carried out in six Local Climate Zones (LCZs) in Ghent (Belgium) on annual and seasonal level (2017) and during two heat...

Urban meteorological network (UMN) was established in the Central European City of Novi Sad (Serbia) based on "local climate zones" (LCZs) system. Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) index was used for the assessment of outdoor thermal comfort in the "built" and "land cover" LCZ classes of Novi Sad. The index was calculated in the RayMan s...

In this study, the Local Climate Zones (LCZs) in Novi Sad, the second largest city in Serbia, are analysed as to surface temperature differences. The LCZs were delineated on the basis of the GIS-based method created by Geletič & Lehnert (2016). Land Surface Temperatures (LSTs) were derived from the satellites Terra, sensor ASTER, and LANDSAT-8. The...

A direct outcome of the global climate change is the modification of seasonal precipitation patterns, apparent on a monthly temporal scale. In Central Europe, it includes more frequent high-intensity rain-falls, occurring mostly during spring and summer. These heavy rainfalls induce pluvial floods in urban areas due to a high percentage of impervio...

Urban and rural thermal properties mainly depend on surface cover features as well as vegetation cover. Surface classification using the local climate zone (LCZ) system provides an appropriate approach for distinguishing urban and rural areas, as well as comparing the surface urban heat island (SUHI) of climatically different regions. Our goal is t...

Pluvial flooding is a result of overland flow and ponding before the runoff enters any watercourse, drainage system or sewer, or cannot enter it because the network is full to capacity, usually caused by intense rainfall. River and coastal floods get the most attention since they are largest and last the longest , while pluvial floods are relativel...

Hot summers with several intensive heat waves lead to strong heat-related mortality in Central and Southeast European cities. Therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate association between maximum temperature and mortality during the summer period in 2015 and to contribute to the future long-term assessment of heat-related mortality in urban p...

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of precipitation and pluvial flood occurrences in urban areas of Central Europe, as well as in cities of Hungary and Republic of Serbia. Thus, we proposed project named “Monitoring, forecasting and development of online public early warning system for extreme precipitations and pluv...

The aim of this paper was to assess the impact of heatwaves on mortality in ten Czech cities, using data recorded during the summers of 2015 and 2016. Temperature-related mortality during heatwaves was investigated by comparing mortality figures on heatwave days and those on other days by means of the Mann-Whitney U test. Results for all-cause mort...

We present the first comprehensive study of air temperature (T a) dynamics in seven Local Climate Zones (LCZs) of Novi Sad (Serbia) based on measurements from 17 stations during 3-year period (2014-2017). LCZs temperature dynamics were analyzed on seasonal and annual level and during heat and cold wave periods. Stations are located in six built-up...

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is measure for urban ecosystems restoration and rehabilitation and is presented as an instrument for urban heat island (UHI) effects mitigation. Based on global climate change processes, the urban areas, particularly middle- and large-sized cities are affected by intense UHI phenomena. The climate in urban areas is modi...

This study analyzes inter- and intra-zonal seasonal variability of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) within the methodological framework of local climate zones (LCZs) in three central European cities (Prague, Brno and Novi Sad). These cities differ in urban area and structure as well as in topography and hinterland land-cover features. LCZs were d...

Land surface temperatures (LST) between the Local Climate Zones (LCZs) in Novi Sad, thesecond largest city in Serbia, are analysed. The LCZs were delineated on the basis of the GIS-based method create d by Geletič – Lehnert (2016). Land Surface Temperatures (LSTs) were derived from the satellites: Terra, sensor ASTER, and LANDSAT-8. The thermal ima...

Abstract An increasing number of urban meteorological networks (UMNs) and automated data acquisition are irreplaceable tools in modern urban climate monitoring, evaluation, and analysis. The most serious issue in such systems is data loss, caused primarily by communication problems between stations and servers. The Novi Sad Urban Network (NSUNET) c...

The main goal of this research is to assess risk and map methodologies for the study of intensive heat waves in Novi Sad’s urban area. Novi Sad is the second largest city in the Republic of Serbia, with a built-up area of 102 km² and the population of 330,000 (data as of 2017). Intensive heat waves are a frequently occurring hazard in Central and S...

Monitoring and recording large time series of data and making them available for studying-are the key roles of environmental monitoring systems. This study produce review of three different measurement monitoring systems (NSUNET, WAHASTRAT and MERIEXWA) with same design, which were placed during different time frame in the Northern Serbia (Vojvodin...

Analysis of urban climate is important for understanding the conditions under which heat waves and other meteorological events occur in urban environment. In this paper are analyzed air temperature values and differences in Novi Sad during heat wave period (4-15th August 2015)based on data from the network of urban meteorological stations establish...

Long-term relative humidity (RH) data (2014-2017) from 17 stations located in Central European city of Novi Sad (Serbia) was analyzed in order to obtain intra-urban RH differences and patterns. Stations are located in different built-up and land cover zones (i.e. "Local Climate Zones") of Novi Sad and its natural surroundings covering an area of 11...

This study uses the MUKLIMO_3 urban climate model (in German, Mikroskaliges Urbanes KLImaMOdell in 3-Dimensionen) and measurements from an urban climate network in order to simulate, validate and analyse the spatiotemporal pattern of human thermal comfort outdoors in the city of Brno (Czech Republic) during a heat-wave period. HUMIDEX, a heat index...

Risk assessment and mapping methodologies for heat waves as frequently occurring hazards in central and southeastern Europe were applied in this study, and the impact of heat waves on the mortality of urban populations was determined as part of the assessment. The methodology for conducting the heat wave risk assessment is based on European Commiss...