Local Climate Zones and urban morphology dataset to support numerical modelling in Greece, utilizing GIS, multispectral, and SAR data

Urbanization and climate change are expected to intensify urban overheating, leading to severe health risks, economic losses, and social challenges. Numerical urban modelling offers a cost-effective alternative to in-situ observations, providing broader spatial and temporal coverage of potential heat risks. Accurately representing key parameters that define urban form is crucial for leveraging advancements in urban parameterizations and high-resolution mesoscale models. The Local Climate Zones (LCZ) scheme, which classifies urban areas based on their form and function, has become the standard urban classification system over the past decade. In the current work, we present detailed 100-meter LCZ maps for the five most populated cities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras, and Heraklion), along with key urban form parameters, such as building height, and height-to-width ratio. These data were developed using a hybrid GIS-based and remote sensing-based framework that incorporates ultra-high-resolution elevation models (0.8 m), supported by Copernicus Earth Observation and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) datasets. Special attention was given to ensure seamless integration with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, enabling highly-resolved numerical weather analysis for the targeted urban areas. This was achieved by including in the dataset city-specific surface and urban canopy properties for each LCZ class, assigned through a Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) classification at 100 m spatial resolution in WRF compliant format. The LU/LC data were constructed by integrating the LCZ urban classes with CORINE land cover information for the natural areas. Overall, this dataset enables accurate description and modelling of urban environments and can be used across various applications, marking a significant step towards creating an open-access national urban dataset for Greece.