Urban systems are not only major drivers of climate change but also the impact hotspots. In the context of the planet currently undergoing a process of greenhouse warming, and simultaneously predominantly urban based ever continuing population growth, our agglomerations became vulnerable to chain reactions triggered by climate related hazards. Hence, the reliable and cost-effective assessment of future impact is of high importance. While the climate community has invested significant effort to provide downscaling techniques yielding localized information on future climate extreme behaviours, these methods do not remain widely exploited in the process of urban planning. In this work, we discuss the underlying reasons and main challenges of the applicability of downscaling procedures in the real process of urban planning. This paper attempts to help bridge the gap between the communities of urban planners and climatology. In the beginning, we summarize the rationale for such cooperation, supporting the argument that the scale represents an important linkage between urbanistic and climate science in the process of designing an urban space. Secondly, we introduce the main families of downscaling techniques and their application on climate projections, also providing the references to profound studies in the field. Thirdly, special attention is given to previous works focused on the utilization of downscaled ensembles of climate simulations in urban agglomerations. Finally, we identify three major challenges of the wider utilization of climate projections and downscaling techniques, namely: (i) the scale mismatch between data needs and data availability, (ii) the terminology, and (iii) the IT bottleneck. The practical implications of these issues are discussed in the context of urban studies.

In the field of low flux optical measurements, the development and use of large area silicon detectors is becoming more frequent. The current/voltage conversion of their photocurrent presents a set of problems for traditional transimpedance amplifiers. The switched integration principle overcomes these limitations. We describe the development of a fully characterized current-voltage amplifier using the switched integrator technique. Two distinct systems have been developed in parallel at the United Kingdom’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Czech Metrology Institute (CMI) laboratories. We present the circuit theory and best practice in the design and construction of switched integrators. In conclusion the results achieved and future developments are discussed.