This study numerically assesses the impact of a new railway on urban development and thermal comfort, specifically the Tsukuba Express (TX) railway in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, Japan. The railway was chosen because it connects high-, mid-urbanized, and suburban areas in the Tokyo Metropolitan region, Japan, allowing for a distinct evaluation of its impact on each urban area type. Consequently, four representative stations were selected: one in a high-urbanized area, two in mid-urbanized areas, and one in a suburban area. A numerical atmospheric model, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), with a horizontal resolution of 250 m, was used to simulate the areas along the entire railway, including the stations. The study includes two simulation cases: before (2005) and after (2015) the construction of the TX. The impact of urbanization on surface air temperature distribution along the TX railway is initially assessed. The results indicate that the most significant temperature increase (1.7 °C) occurred in suburban stations between 2005 and 2015 at 1800 JST compared to other areas. Following the development of the TX railway in 2005, anthropogenic heat (AH) release from buildings and traffic increased rapidly by approximately 80 W/m2. The study highlights that areas experiencing significant increases in air temperature and energy consumption need careful attention and the implementation of feasible environmentally friendly measures.

Urban sprawl involves population expansion, rising energy demand, land use changes, and transport infrastructure advancements. This research proposes a comprehensive framework to evaluate the impact of the metro in Sofia, Bulgaria, on urban transformation by combining the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis and high-resolution, large-scale simulations based on the state-of-the-art Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The urban transformation encompasses land use shifts, changes in building typology, energy consumption increases, and thermal effects from 2009 to 2024 across 45 metro stations within 800-meter buffer zones. Results show that 15.6% of metro-adjacent areas shifted to high-density developments, replacing green and lower-density zones. This densification is associated with increased gross floor area (GFA), higher energy demand, and partly exacerbated Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects. The findings reveal the impact of metro expansion on urban transformation, offering a scalable framework for cities experiencing rapid urbanisation and transit development.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ae0f8e