scholarly journals Scaling the Daytime Urban Heat Island and Urban-Breeze Circulation

2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 889-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Hidalgo ◽  
Valéry Masson ◽  
Luis Gimeno

Abstract The urban-breeze circulation is a mesoscale response of the atmospheric flow that is related to horizontal variations in temperature associated, for dry conditions, with gradients in sensible heat flux densities. This local circulation is difficult to observe with a simple observational deployment, and the 3D numerical simulations needed to model it are very demanding in computer time. A theoretical approach scaling the daytime urban heat island and urban-breeze characteristics has been developed and provides a simple set of equations that depend on measurable parameters. Three-dimensional high-resolution numerical simulations, performed with the Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale (Meso-NH) atmospheric model, were used to generate a set of urban-breeze circulations forced by an idealized urban environment. The pertinent forcing parameters chosen were the size of the city, the height of the thermal inversion topping the mixed turbulent air layer, and the difference (urban – rural) of surface heat flux. Scaling laws are presented that describe the shape of the urban heat island and the horizontal and vertical wind intensity and profiles.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Takebayashi ◽  
Masakazu Moriyama

The surface heat budgets of various pavement surfaces are studied with the aim of mitigating the urban heat island effect. In this study, the thermal characteristics of pavements are examined using data from observations. The net radiation, surface temperature, temperature under the surface, conduction heat flux, and core weight for each experimental surface are recorded, together with the weather conditions at the time of observation. The latent heat flux is estimated from the observed weight of the cores. The surface heat budget under the same weather conditions is examined, and the sensible heat flux from each target surface is calculated. The parameters that influence the surface heat budget, for example, solar reflectance (albedo), evaporative efficiency, heat conductivity, and heat capacity, are examined. On a typical summer day, the maximum reduction in the sensible heat flux from that on a normal asphalt surface is about 150 W/m2for an asphalt surface with water-retaining material and about 100 W/m2for a cement concrete surface with water-retaining material, depending on the albedo of each surface.


Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Agathangelidis ◽  
Constantinos Cartalis ◽  
Mat Santamouris

Cities worldwide are getting warmer due to the combined effects of urban heat and climate change. To this end, local policy makers need to identify the most thermally vulnerable areas within cities. The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme highlights local-scale variations; however, its classes, although highly valuable, are to a certain extent generalized in order to be universally applicable. High spatial resolution indicators have the potential to better reflect city-specific challenges; in this paper, the Urban Heat Exposure (UHeatEx) indicator is developed, integrating the physical processes that drive the urban heat island (UHI). In particular, the urban form is modeled using remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) techniques, and used to estimate the canyon aspect ratio and the storage heat flux. The Bowen ratio is calculated using the aerodynamic resistance methodology and downscaled remotely sensed surface temperatures. The anthropogenic heat flux is estimated via a synergy of top–down and bottom–up inventory approaches. UHeatEx is applied to the city of Athens, Greece; it is correlated to air temperature measurements and compared to the LCZs classification. The results reveal that UHeatEx has the capacity to better reflect the strong intra-urban variability of the thermal environment in Athens, and thus can be supportive for adaptation responses. High-resolution climate projections from the EURO-CORDEX ensemble for the region show that the adverse effects of the existing thermal inequity are expected to worsen in the coming decades.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 1827-1843
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Cady ◽  
David A. Rahn ◽  
Nathaniel A. Brunsell ◽  
Ward Lyles

AbstractImpervious surfaces and buildings in the urban environment alter the radiative balance and surface energy exchange and can lead to warmer temperatures known as the urban heat island (UHI), which can increase heat-related illness and mortality. Continued urbanization and anthropogenic warming will enhance city temperatures worldwide, raising the need for viable mitigation strategies. Increasing green space throughout a city is a viable option to lessen the impacts of the UHI but can be difficult to implement. The potential impact of converting existing vacant lots in Kansas City, Missouri, to green spaces is explored with numerical simulations for three heat-wave events. Using data on vacant property and identifying places with a high fraction of impervious surfaces, the most suitable areas for converting vacant lots to green spaces is determined. Land-use/land-cover datasets are modified to simulate varying degrees of feasible conversion of urban to green spaces in these areas, and the local cooling effect using each strategy is compared with the unmodified simulation. Under more aggressive greening strategies, a mean local cooling impact of 0.5°–1.0°C is present within the focus area itself during the nighttime hours. Some additional cooling via the “park cool island” is possible downwind of the converted green spaces under the more aggressive scenarios. Although moderate and conservative strategies of conversion could still lead to other benefits, those strategies have little impact on cooling. Only an aggressive approach yields significant cooling.


2012 ◽  
Vol 724 ◽  
pp. 147-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ree Ho Kim ◽  
Jong Bin Park ◽  
Jung Soo Mun ◽  
Jung Hun Lee

Recently, increasing of impervious surface as concrete or asphalt pavement with urban development brought increasing of air temperature in city. So many researchers have explored ways to reduce the urban heat island effect and water-retentive or water absorbing pavements have been found to be very effective. In this study, to evaluate the reduction effects of urban heat reduction of water-retentive pavement, surface temperature of pavement, air temperature, wind speed and albedo were measured for 3 years (2008~2010, summer period). And the intensity of sensible heat flux was calculated to estimate a influence on air temperature. Experimental results indicated that water-retentive was effective to reduction of air temperature by decreasing of surface temperature of pavement compare to other pavements. This is showed that water-retentive pavement can be contributed to mitigation of urban heat island.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 8525-8541 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Wouters ◽  
K. De Ridder ◽  
M. Demuzere ◽  
D. Lauwaet ◽  
N. P. M. van Lipzig

Abstract. The urban heat island (UHI) over Paris during summer 2006 was simulated using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) updated with a simple urban parametrization at a horizontal resolution of 1 km. Two integrations were performed, one with the urban land cover of Paris and another in which Paris was replaced by cropland. The focus is on a five-day clear-sky period, for which the UHI intensity reaches its maximum. The diurnal evolution of the UHI intensity was found to be adequately simulated for this five day period. The maximum difference at night in 2 m temperature between urban and rural areas stemming from the urban heating is reproduced with a relative error of less than 10%. The UHI has an ellipsoidal shape and stretches along the prevailing wind direction. The maximum UHI intensity of 6.1 K occurs at 23:00 UTC located 6 km downstream of the city centre and this largely remains during the whole night. An idealized one-column model study demonstrates that the nocturnal differential sensible heat flux, even though much smaller than its daytime value, is mainly responsible for the maximum UHI intensity. The reason for this nighttime maximum is that additional heat is only affecting a shallow layer of 150 m. An air uplift is explained by the synoptic east wind and a ramp upwind of the city centre, which leads to a considerable nocturnal adiabatic cooling over cropland. The idealized study demonstrates that the reduced vertical adiabatic cooling over the city compared to cropland induces an additional UHI build-up of 25%. The UHI and its vertical extent is affected by the boundary-layer stability, nocturnal low-level jet as well as radiative cooling. Therefore, improvements of representing these boundary-layer features in atmospheric models are important for UHI studies.


Streetscape elements are the major contributors to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon in the built urban environment. The hot surface air in this phenomenon is concentrated in urban regions and will gradually decrease in surrounding temperatures in suburban or rural regions. The effect of UHI can be seen through the increasing of land surface temperature and influencing the urban ecological systems, climates, and environments. A study has been conducted to identify the impact of urban heat island surrounding the PMU’s streetscape furniture. In this study, the UHI variation has been investigated using BEM and city scale model. The UHI obtained were analyzed and modeled using satellite imagery and GIS. The 3D models of the PMU’s façade were also been developed by using a laser scanner and thermal camera. Based on the analyses, the existing condition of seven selected PMUs are very high for Bangsar, High for Abu Bakar Baginda, Jalan Meru and Batu 4 Kuantan, Medium-high for Kuantan North and Taman Jaya and medium for Setia Alam. Land Surface Temperature (LST) in PMU facade is ranging between 23 ºC to55ºC. Building information modeling (BIM) analysis shows that the existing material used in most PMU facades with solar reflectance was uniformly low to medium-low. Building information modelling (BIM) result shows the building will give greater heat flux (+42% to +53% at 3 pm) because of the solar reflectance (%) from the facades of surrounding streetscape material used. By obtaining the information regarding the elements and factors that contribute to the UHI phenomenon within the study area, the reduction of heat absorption can be performed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (10) ◽  
pp. 1637-1653
Author(s):  
Israel Lopez-Coto ◽  
Micheal Hicks ◽  
Anna Karion ◽  
Ricardo K. Sakai ◽  
Belay Demoz ◽  
...  

AbstractAccurate simulation of planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is key to greenhouse gas emission estimation, air quality prediction, and weather forecasting. This paper describes an extensive performance assessment of several Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model configurations in which novel observations from ceilometers, surface stations, and a flux tower were used to study their ability to reproduce the PBLH and the impact that the urban heat island (UHI) has on the modeled PBLHs in the greater Washington, D.C., area. In addition, CO2 measurements at two urban towers were compared with tracer transport simulations. The ensemble of models used four PBL parameterizations, two sources of initial and boundary conditions, and one configuration including the building energy parameterization urban canopy model. Results have shown low biases over the whole domain and period for wind speed, wind direction, and temperature, with no drastic differences between meteorological drivers. We find that PBLH errors are mostly positively correlated with sensible heat flux errors and that modeled positive UHI intensities are associated with deeper modeled PBLs over the urban areas. In addition, we find that modeled PBLHs are typically biased low during nighttime for most of the configurations with the exception of those using the MYNN parameterization, and these biases directly translate to tracer biases. Overall, the configurations using the MYNN scheme performed the best, reproducing the PBLH and CO2 molar fractions reasonably well during all hours and thus opening the door to future nighttime inverse modeling.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 25941-25981
Author(s):  
H. Wouters ◽  
K. De Ridder ◽  
N. P. M. van Lipzig ◽  
M. Demuzere ◽  
D. Lauwaet

Abstract. The urban heat island (UHI) over Paris during summer 2006 was simulated using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) updated with a simple urban parametrization at a horizontal resolution of 1 km. Two integrations were performed, one with the urban land cover of Paris and another in which Paris was replaced by cropland. The focus is on a five-day clear-sky period, for which the UHI intensity reaches its maximum. The diurnal evolution of the UHI intensity was found to be adequately simulated for this five day period. The maximum difference at night in 2-m temperature between urban and rural areas stemming from the urban heating is reproduced with a relative error of less than 10%. The UHI has an ellipsoidal shape and stretches along the prevailing wind direction. The maximum UHI intensity of 6.1 K occurs at 23:00 UTC located 6 km downstream of the city centre and this largely remains during the whole night. An idealized one-column model study demonstrates that the nocturnal differential sensible heat flux, even though much smaller than its daytime value, is mainly responsible for the maximum UHI intensity. The reason for this nighttime maximum is that additional heat is only affecting a shallow layer of 150 m. At the same time, an idealized study shows that the orography around the city of Paris induces an uplift. This leads to a considerable nocturnal adiabatic cooling over cropland. In contrast, this uplift has little effect on the mixed-layer temperature over the city. About twenty percent of the total maximum UHI intensity is estimated to be caused by this uplift.


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