scholarly journals Modeling the Partitioning of Turbulent Fluxes at Urban Sites with Varying Vegetation Cover

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 2537-2553 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Best ◽  
C. S. B. Grimmond

Abstract Inclusion of vegetation is critical for urban land surface models (ULSM) to represent reasonably the turbulent sensible and latent heat flux densities in an urban environment. Here the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), a ULSM, is used to simulate the Bowen ratio at a number of urban and rural sites with vegetation cover varying between 1% and 98%. The results show that JULES is able to represent the observed Bowen ratios, but only when the additional anthropogenic water supplied into the urban ecosystem is considered. The impact of the external water use (e.g., through irrigation or street cleaning) on the surface energy flux partitioning can be as substantial as that of the anthropogenic heat flux on the sensible and latent heat fluxes. The Bowen ratio varies from 1 to 2 when the plan area vegetation fraction is between 30% and 70%. However, when the vegetation fraction is less than 20%, the Bowen ratios increase substantially (2–10) and have greater sensitivity to assumptions about external water use. As there are few long-term observational sites with vegetation cover less than 30%, there is a clear need for more measurement studies in such environments.

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1399-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miao Yu ◽  
Jorge González ◽  
Shiguang Miao ◽  
Prathap Ramamurthy

AbstractA cooling tower scheme that quantifies the sensible and latent anthropogenic heat fluxes released from buildings was coupled to an operational forecasting system [Rapid Refresh Multiscale Analysis and Prediction of the Beijing Urban Meteorological Institute (RMAPS-Urban)] and was evaluated in the context of the megacity of Beijing, China, during summer months. The objective of this scheme is to correct for underestimations of surface latent heat fluxes in regional climate modeling and weather forecasts in urban areas. The performance for surface heat fluxes by the modified RMAPS-Urban is greatly improved when compared with a suite of observations in Beijing. The cooling tower scheme increases the anthropogenic latent heat partition by 90% of the total anthropogenic heat flux release. Averaged surface latent heat flux in urban areas increases to about 64.3 W m−2 with a peak of 150 W m−2 on dry summer days and 40.35 W m−2 with a peak of 150 W m−2 on wet summer days. The model performance of near-surface temperature and humidity is also improved. Average 2-m temperature errors are reduced by 1°C, and maximum and minimum temperature errors are improved by 2°–3°C; absolute humidity is increased by 5%.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4645-4666 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Ward ◽  
J. G. Evans ◽  
C. S. B. Grimmond

Abstract. Eddy covariance measurements of the turbulent sensible heat, latent heat and carbon dioxide fluxes for 12 months (2011–2012) are reported for the first time for a suburban area in the UK. The results from Swindon are comparable to suburban studies of similar surface cover elsewhere but reveal large seasonal variability. Energy partitioning favours turbulent sensible heat during summer (midday Bowen ratio 1.4–1.6) and latent heat in winter (0.05–0.7). A significant proportion of energy is stored (and released) by the urban fabric and the estimated anthropogenic heat flux is small but non-negligible (0.5–0.9 MJ m−2 day−1). The sensible heat flux is negative at night and for much of winter daytimes, reflecting the suburban nature of the site (44% vegetation) and relatively low built fraction (16%). Latent heat fluxes appear to be water limited during a dry spring in both 2011 and 2012, when the response of the surface to moisture availability can be seen on a daily timescale. Energy and other factors are more relevant controls at other times; at night the wind speed is important. On average, surface conductance follows a smooth, asymmetrical diurnal course peaking at around 6–9 mm s−1, but values are larger and highly variable in wet conditions. The combination of natural (vegetative) and anthropogenic (emission) processes is most evident in the temporal variation of the carbon flux: significant photosynthetic uptake is seen during summer, whilst traffic and building emissions explain peak release in winter (9.5 g C m−2 day−1). The area is a net source of CO2 annually. Analysis by wind direction highlights the role of urban vegetation in promoting evapotranspiration and offsetting CO2 emissions, especially when contrasted against peak traffic emissions from sectors with more roads. Given the extent of suburban land use, these results have important implications for understanding urban energy, water and carbon dynamics.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 29147-29201 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Ward ◽  
J. G. Evans ◽  
C. S. B. Grimmond

Abstract. Eddy covariance measurements of the turbulent sensible heat, latent heat and carbon dioxide flux for twelve months (2011–2012) are reported for the first time for a suburban area in the UK. The results from Swindon are compatible with suburban studies of similar surface cover elsewhere but reveal large seasonal variability. Energy partitioning favours turbulent sensible heat during summer (midday Bowen ratio 1.4–1.6) and latent heat in winter (0.05–0.7), a significant proportion of energy is stored (and released) by the urban fabric and the estimated anthropogenic heat flux is small but non-negligible (0.5–0.9 MJ m−2 day−1). The sensible heat flux is negative at night and for much of winter daytimes, reflecting the vegetated nature of the site (44%). Latent heat fluxes appear to be water limited during a dry spring in both 2011 and 2012, when the response of the surface to moisture availability can be seen on a daily timescale. Energy and other factors are more relevant controls at other times; at night the wind speed is important. Surface conductance follows a smooth, asymmetrical diurnal course peaking at around 7–10 mm s−1 but values are larger and highly variable for wet conditions. The combination of natural (vegetative) and anthropogenic (emission) processes is most evident in the temporal variation of the carbon flux: significant photosynthetic uptake is seen during summer, whilst traffic and building emissions explain peak release in winter (9.87 g C m−2 day−1). The area is a net source of CO2 annually. Analysis by wind direction highlights the role of urban vegetation in promoting evapotranspiration and offsetting CO2 emissions, especially when contrasted against peak traffic emissions from sectors with more roads. Given the extent of suburban land use, these results have important implications for understanding urban energy, water and carbon dynamics.


2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Wójcik ◽  
Peter A. Troch ◽  
H. Stricker ◽  
P. Torfs ◽  
E. Wood ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper proposes a new probabilistic approach for describing uncertainty in the ensembles of latent heat flux proxies. The proxies are obtained from hourly Bowen ratio and satellite-derived measurements, respectively, at several locations in the southern Great Plains region in the United States. The novelty of the presented approach is that the proxies are not considered separately, but as bivariate samples from an underlying probability density function. To describe the latter, the use of Gaussian mixture density models—a class of nonparametric, data-adaptive probability density functions—is proposed. In this way any subjective assumptions (e.g., Gaussianity) on the form of bivariate latent heat flux ensembles are avoided. This makes the estimated mixtures potentially useful in nonlinear interpolation and nonlinear probabilistic data assimilation of noisy latent heat flux measurements. The results in this study show that both of these applications are feasible through regionalization of estimated mixture densities. The regionalization scheme investigated here utilizes land cover and vegetation fraction as discriminatory variables.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1983-2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangyu Ao ◽  
C. S. B. Grimmond ◽  
H. C. Ward ◽  
A. M. Gabey ◽  
Jianguo Tan ◽  
...  

Abstract The Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is used to investigate the impact of anthropogenic heat flux QF and irrigation on surface energy balance partitioning in a central business district of Shanghai. Diurnal profiles of QF are carefully derived based on city-specific hourly electricity consumption data, hourly traffic data, and dynamic population density. The QF is estimated to be largest in summer (mean daily peak 236 W m−2). When QF is omitted, the SUEWS sensible heat flux QH reproduces the observed diurnal pattern generally well, but the magnitude is underestimated compared to observations for all seasons. When QF is included, the QH estimates are improved in spring, summer, and autumn but are poorer in winter, indicating winter QF is overestimated. Inclusion of QF has little influence on the simulated latent heat flux QE but improves the storage heat flux estimates except in winter. Irrigation, both amount and frequency, has a large impact on QE. When irrigation is not considered, the simulated QE is underestimated for all seasons. The mean summer daytime QE is largely overestimated compared to observations under continuous irrigation conditions. Model results are improved when irrigation occurs with a 3-day frequency, especially in summer. Results are consistent with observed monthly outdoor water use. This study highlights the importance of appropriately including QF and irrigation in urban land surface models—terms not generally considered in many previous studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shasha Wang ◽  
Deyong Hu ◽  
Shanshan Chen ◽  
Chen Yu

Anthropogenic heat (AH) generated by human activities has a major impact on urban and regional climate. Accurately estimating anthropogenic heat is of great significance for studies on urban thermal environment and climate change. In this study, a gridded anthropogenic heat flux (AHF) estimation scheme was constructed based on socio-economic data, energy-consumption data, and multi-source remote sensing data using a partition modeling method, which takes into account the regional characteristics of AH emission caused by the differences in regional development levels. The refined AHF mapping in China was realized with a high resolution of 500 m. The results show that the spatial distribution of AHF has obvious regional characteristics in China. Compared with the AHF in provinces, the AHF in Shanghai is the highest which reaches 12.56 W·m−2, followed by Tianjin, Beijing, and Jiangsu. The AHF values are 5.92 W·m−2, 3.35 W·m−2, and 3.10 W·m−2, respectively. As can be seen from the mapping results of refined AHF, the high-value AHF aggregation areas are mainly distributed in north China, east China, and south China. The high-value AHF in urban areas is concentrated in 50–200 W·m−2, and maximum AHF in Shenzhen urban center reaches 267 W·m−2. Further, compared with other high resolution AHF products, it can be found that the AHF results in this study have higher spatial heterogeneity, which can better characterize the emission characteristics of AHF in the region. The spatial pattern of the AHF estimation results correspond to the distribution of building density, population, and industry zone. The high-value AHF areas are mainly distributed in airports, railway stations, industry areas, and commercial centers. It can thus be seen that the AHF estimation models constructed by the partition modeling method can well realize the estimation of large-scale AHF and the results can effectively express the detailed spatial distribution of AHF in local areas. These results can provide technical ideas and data support for studies on surface energy balance and urban climate change.


Author(s):  
Nektarios Chrysoulakis ◽  
Mattia Marconcini ◽  
Jean-Philippe Gastellu-Etchegorry ◽  
C.S.B Grimmong ◽  
Christian Feigenwinter ◽  
...  

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