Research Article ISSN:2687-6418

Journal of Research in Atmospheric Science http://resatmsci.com/

Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 18-22, December 2019

Analysis of Climate in the Megacity of Istanbul Based on Human

Bioclimatic Comfort Index
Mohsen Abbasnia1, Hüseyin Toros2, Hadi Memarian3
1
Kashmar Higher Education Institute, Department of Water Science and Engineering, Kashmar 9671989851, Iran; abbasnia@itu.edu.tr
2
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorology, Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey, toros@itu.edu.tr
3
University of Birjand, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Environmental Sciences, Birjand, Iran; hadi_memarian@birjand.ac.ir

(First received 12 Sep. 2019 and in final form 20 Dec. 2019)

Abstract
Majority of people check the weather and climate condition in choice of destination for travelling.
Knowledge of climate information and tourism planning can reduce negative effects of weather and climate
on tourists. Climate of the Istanbul megacity has been shown a rise of 0.94 oC in average annual temperature
during the last century. A notable increase in temperatures has been started after the 1940s which is in
parallel with the beginning of industrialization era. Moreover, rising rate in amount and frequency of heavy
rainfall has more evident during the last 3 decades. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify
favorable weather months in Istanbul based on Mieczkowski's Tourism Climate Index (TCI), for an
analyzed time-period from 1961 to 2016. To calculate the index is used the climatic elements of
temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, sunshine hours and wind speed. The results of tourism
bioclimatic comfort have revealed that Istanbul has a bioclimatic comfort in 7 months. Weather throughout
7 months from April to October is desirable. Thus, the best climate comfort conditions dominated for the
warm seasons of the year. Moreover, daily thermal conditions of Istanbul city have showed a higher
consistency in thermal conditions compared to daytime. Hence, the evaluation of human bioclimatic
comfort conditions can be effective in tourism development planning.

Keywords: Climate, Weather, Tourism, TCI Index, Istanbul.

1. Introduction some regions of the world have a minimal tourism

Nowadays, weather and climate have great
importance in developing of tourism industry.
Weather and climate are key influences on the
tourism sector worldwide (Perry and Smith, 1997),
affecting the length and quality of tourism seasons
and the environmental resources (Scott et al. 2004).
Most of the tourists use the climate information for
travelling and choice of destination. To bring so
many tourism destinations in the world, owes its
success to having favorable climate. The
characteristics of weather and climate can scarcely
disrupt human activities absolutely but they
constitute a very important financial factor if
viewed in the light of tourism. This implies that
potential. Climatic conditions allow or favor certain
outdoor tourist or recreational activities such as
hiking, rafting, golf, and hunting, fishing and
climbing (Gomez, 2005). Therefore, climate plays a
decisive role in the selection of destinations for
tourists.
So far, many efforts have been studied in the
fields of assessing the climatic comfort of the
human habitat (Matzarakis and Mayer, 1997;
Hamilton et al. 2005; Mohammadi and Saeidi,
2008). By definition, the purpose of climatic
comfort conditions is that the set of conditions that
by temperature it is at least appropriate for majority
of people (Jahanbakhsh, 1998). The bioclimatic

Corresponding author : Kashmar Higher Education Institute, Department of Water Science and Engineering, Kashmar, Iran,
abbasnia@itu.edu.tr, phone: +90 546 728 7576

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 Journal of Research in Atmospheric Science
investigates have confirmed that the subjective
perception which the human body feels regardless
of the environmental conditions. Today knowledge
optimal models human bioclimatic comfort is use
different models which most important thoroughly
documented in many case studies (e.g. Scott and
McBoyle, 2001; Amelung and Viner, 2006; de
Freitas et al. 2008). Therefore, the objective of this
study is to detect the length and quality of tourism
seasons based on Mieczkowski's Tourism Climate
Index in Istanbul city.
2. Study Area, Data and Methodology
The megacity of Istanbul (Figure 1) is
geographically located in the northwest of Turkey
and one of the most populous cities in the world.
This megacity is the heart of Turkey owing to the
industry, commercialization, culture, and tourism.
This city covers a total area 5,400 km2
approximately and has many hills with the highest
point of 540 m at the Aydos hill (Demirkaya, 2011).
Istanbul’s climate is usually warm and dry in
summer, cold and wet in winter. The average annual
temperature is about 13.8 oC with a monthly
maximum of 22.8 oC in August and a monthly
minimum of 5.3 oC in February. The total annual
precipitation is 837.5 mm with a monthly maximum
of 128.4 mm in December and a monthly minimum
of 31.9 mm in July (Toros et al. 2017).
Figure 1. Geographical location of Istanbul city
and the analysed synoptic stations
To evaluate the climatic conditions for
attractions of tourists in Istanbul city, tourism
climate comfort conditions are considered. In this
regards, the daily meteorological parameters of
average maximum daily temperature (cg), mean
daily temperature (cg), minimum relative humidity
(%), average relative humidity (%), rainfall (mm),
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total sunshine hours (h), average wind speed (km/h)
are prepared from four synoptic stations located in
Istanbul area (Figure 1) for a long time-period of
1965 to 2016. Mieczkowski (Miesczkowski, 1985)
developed Torism Climate Index (TCI). First, this
index calculates five sub-indices, each represented
by one or two monthly climate variables. The five
sub-indices and their constituent variables were as
follows: (1) CID day-time comfort index
(maximum daily temperature (°C) and minimum
daily relative humidity (%)), (2) CIA daily comfort
index (mean daily temperature (°C) and mean daily
relative humidity (%)), (3) precipitation (total
precipitation, (mm)), (4) sunshine (total hours of
sunshine), and (5) wind (average wind speed (m/s
or km/h). Equation 1 represents the final TCI index
calculated based on the previous sub-indices.
TCI= 2 [4 CID + 2 CIA + 4 R + 4 S + 2 W] 1
Based on each location’s index value, its
suitability for tourism activity has rated on a scale
from –30 to 100. Mieczkowski, (1985) divided this
scale into 10 categories, ranging from ideal (90-
100), excellent (80-89), very good (70-79), Good
(60-69) acceptable (50-59), and marginal (40-49) to
extremely unfavorable (10-19) and impossible (9 to
-30).
3. Results and Discussion
An appropriate climate type can lead to positive
responses from tourists, and tourists can plan their
travel plans according to the desired climatic
conditions. Therefore, some meteorological
parameters of Istanbul city includes; average
temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, sunshine
hours, and wind speed has been analyzed using the
Tourism Climate Index concerning the assessment
of best time for tourism during the year. Moreover,
daily temperature and precipitation parameters are
considered to understanding the climatic changes in
Istanbul city and over the time.
Trend analysis of the temperatures and precipitation
series using the Man Kendall trend test are applied
for sub-periods throughout the whole period of
1912-2016. There is a notable increase in
temperature values after the 1940s which is in
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 Journal of Research in Atmospheric Science
parallel with the beginning of industrialization era
in Istanbul. There has been a rise of about 0.94 oC
in the daily average temperature series since the
beginning of the last century. A significant positive
trend in the daily maximum temperature series is
found about 1.56 oC. Also, there was a positive
trend about 0.87 oC in the daily minimum
temperature series. On the other hand, analysis of
the number of days with the daily maximum Figure 3. Time series of total annual precipitation
temperature higher than 30 oC showed that there is (a) and total monthly precipitation (b)
increasing trend. While, analysis of the number of
days with daily minimum temperatures lower than Next, the daytime thermal comfort (CID) index
0 oC showed a decreasing trend, generally. The defined the thermal comfort during the maximum
tourist activity and calculated based on two
increment in the minimum values of daily minimum
meteorological parameters of maximum daily
temperature series is more evident than the temperature and minimum daily relative humidity.
maximum values. In this case, these rising rates in The results of this index based on all studied
the minimum temperature series are more evident stations showed that the desirable type of thermal
for the section periods of 1912–1980 and 1981– conditions during the daytime for human activities
2016 than the section periods of 1912-1980 and revealed during the four months of May, June,
1981-2016 (Figure 2). September, and October (Figure 4). On the other
side, the four months of warm seasons includes;
June, July, August, and September revealed a
consistent of the time-period for human activities
based on the daily thermal comfort (CIA) levels
(Figure 5). This index is showing thermal comfort
over 24 hours based on two meteorological
parameters of mean daily temperature and mean
daily relative humidity. Thus, the daily thermal
conditions of Istanbul city are more biocompatible
than the daytime thermal conditions resulted in all
Figure 2. Trend analysis of average annual of studied stations. This result could be affected by
temperature (a), average monthly temperature (b) the main characteristic of climate type of Istanbul
concerning the existence of higher atmospheric
The daily average of rainfall amount has humidity during the days compared to moderate
increased with a value of 58 mm during the period relative humidity during the nights.
of 1912–2016. Also, the trend analysis of the daily
maximum precipitation series showed that a mean
rising about 6.1 mm. Overall, the total average
precipitation of Istanbul increased, while this
increasing trend is more pronounced during the
previous decades than the last 3 decades. On the
other hand, the increasing rate of daily maximum
precipitation is more pronounced in the last 3
decades than the previous decades. Then, it was
shown that the frequency of heavy rainfall at Figure 4. Monthly thermal comfort conditions in
Istanbul has increased during the recent decades Istanbul based on the CID index
(Figure 3).

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 Journal of Research in Atmospheric Science
Figure 5. Monthly thermal comfort conditions in
Istanbul based on the CIA index
An appropriate climate can lead to positive
responses from tourists, and tourists can plan their
travel schedule according to the desired climatic
conditions. The results of assessing the monthly
climate comfort condition using Mieczkowski’s
Tourism climate index indicated that the best
months for tourists based on suitable existence of
bioclimatic comfort conditions dominated for the
months of warm seasons of the year. In this regards,
the best rank of tourism climate index revealed for
the June with the ideal classification. Then, the
second classification ‘excellent’ of tourism climate
index exposed for the majority of months during the
warm seasons includes; May, July, August, and
September. Overall, the best time for tourist
activities based on the capability of climate comfort
obtained in the warm seasons of the year, while,
there are no suitable climate comfort conditions
during the cold seasons of the year (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Monthly bioclimatic comfort condition in
Istanbul based on the TCI index
4. Conclusion
Certainly, tourism proposed as motive force in
the development of contemporary world. In the
present study, monthly climatic comfort conditions
investigated for determining the suitable months of
Copyright © 2019 RESATMSCI
Istanbul’s climate regarding the tourist activities.
The results of tourism bioclimatic comfort have
shown that Istanbul has a bioclimatic comfort in 7
months. Weather throughout 7 months from April to
October is desirable. Thus, the best climate comfort
conditions dominated for the warm seasons of the
year with classification of Ideal in June, Excellent
in May, July, August, and September, Very good in
October, and Good in April for tourism activities.
Moreover, the daily thermal conditions of Istanbul
city are more biocompatible than the daytime
thermal conditions based on all results of studied
stations. Overall, the best time for tourist activities
based on the capability of climate comfort obtained
in the warm seasons of the year, while, the cold
seasons of the year in the most inappropriate of
comfort condition. These results should be note to
administrators due to better development of tourism
industry for this city.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the
Meteorological Service of Turkey. A version of this
paper has been presented in the ATMOS2019
Symposium.
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