Urbanisation of weather data lead for more sustainable building design: urban land surface model used to generate Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) datasets

Author(s):  
Ting Sun ◽  
Yihao Tang ◽  
Jie Xiong ◽  
Hamidreza Omidvar ◽  
Sue Grimmond

<p>Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) datasets are widely used in building energy design simulations to assess needs (cooling/heat). Currently, TMY data used are representative of the past climate (from observations) of the region and generally do not account for urban climate or building-city interactions. Here we use an urban land surface model, SUEWS (Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme) driven by ERA5 reanalysis data to bridge this gap.</p><p>Using 0.25 ° large-scale ERA5 reanalysis data (1979–2018) with SUEWS we generate an urbanised TMY (uTMY) dataset for Changsha, a city with more than 4.4 million residents in the hot-summer-cold-winter region of China, to demonstrate the proposed workflow. The SUEWS simulation are evaluated at the Leifeng site (WMO code 57687) for 2016.</p><p>Through comparison of DOE EnergyPlus simulations, we also assess the impact on design building energy consumption using uTMY and cTMY (conventional TMY) data. The building design energy needs evaluation is for a common Chinese apartment building. This should allow for more spatially explicit building design, and hence more sustainable.</p>

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Yang ◽  
James A. Smith ◽  
Mary Lynn Baeck ◽  
Elie Bou-Zeid ◽  
Stephen M. Jessup ◽  
...  

Abstract In this study, observational and numerical modeling analyses based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) are used to investigate the impact of urbanization on heavy rainfall over the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan region. The authors examine urban modification of rainfall for a storm system with continental-scale moisture transport, strong large-scale forcing, and extreme rainfall over a large area of the upper Midwest of the United States. WRF simulations were carried out to examine the sensitivity of the rainfall distribution in and around the urban area to different urban land surface model representations and urban land-use scenarios. Simulation results suggest that urbanization plays an important role in precipitation distribution, even in settings characterized by strong large-scale forcing. For the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan region, the thermodynamic perturbations produced by urbanization on the temperature and surface pressure fields enhance the intrusion of the lake breeze and facilitate the formation of a convergence zone, which create favorable conditions for deep convection over the city. Analyses of model and observed vertical profiles of reflectivity using contoured frequency by altitude displays (CFADs) suggest that cloud dynamics over the city do not change significantly with urbanization. Simulation results also suggest that the large-scale rainfall pattern is not sensitive to different urban representations in the model. Both urban representations, the Noah land surface model with urban land categories and the single-layer urban canopy model, adequately capture the dominant features of this storm over the urban region.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schwitalla ◽  
Hans-Stefan Bauer ◽  
Volker Wulfmeyer ◽  
Kirsten Warrach-Sagi

Abstract. The impact of a convection permitting (CP) northern hemisphere latitude-belt simulation with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was investigated during the July and August 2013. For this application, the WRF model together with the NOAH land-surface model (LSM) was applied at two different horizontal resolutions, 0.03° (HIRES) and 0.12° (LOWRES). The set-up as a latitude-belt domain avoids disturbances that originate from the western and eastern boundaries and therefore allows to study the impact of model resolution and physical parameterizations on the results. Both simulations were forced by ECMWF operational analysis data at the northern and southern domain boundaries and the high-resolution Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) data at the sea surface. The simulations are compared to the operational ECMWF analysis for the representation of large scale features. To compare the simulated precipitation, the operational ECMWF forecast, the CPC MORPHing (CMORPH), and the ENSEMBLES gridded observation precipitation data set (E-OBS) were used. Compared to the operational high-resolution ECMWF analysis, both simulations are able to capture the large scale circulation pattern though the strength of the Pacific high is considerably overestimated in the LOWRES simulation. Major differences between ECMWF and WRF occur during July 2013 when the lower resolution simulation shows a significant negative bias over the North Atlantic which is not observed in the CP simulation. The analysis indicates deficiencies in the applied combinations of cloud microphysics and convection parametrization on the coarser grid scale in subpolar regions. The overall representation of the 500 hPa geopotential height surface is also improved by the CP simulation compared to the LOWRES simulation apart across Newfoundland where the geopotential height is higher than in the LOWRES simulation due to a northward shift of the location of the Atlantic high pressure system. Both simulations show higher wind speeds in the boundary layer by about 1.5 m s−1 compared to the the ECMWF analysis. Due to the higher surface evaporation, this results in a moist bias of 0.5 g kg−1 at 925 hPa in the planetary boundary layer compared to the ECMWF analysis. Major differences between ECMWF and WRF occur in the simulation of the 2-m temperatures over the Asian desert and steppe regions. They are significantly higher in WRF by about 5 K both during day- and night-time presumably as a result of different soil hydraulic parameters used in the NOAH land surface model for steppe regions. The precipitation of the HIRES simulation shows a better spatial agreement with CMORPH especially over mountainous terrain. The overall bias reduces from 80 mm at the coarser resolution to 50 mm in the HIRES simulation and the root mean square error is reduced by about 35 % when compared to the CMORPH precipitation analysis. The precipitation distribution agrees much better with the CMORPH data than the LOWRES simulation which tends to overestimate precipitation, mainly caused by the convection parametrization. Especially over Europe the CP resolution reduces the precipitation bias by about 30 % to 20 mm as a result of a better terrain representation and due to the avoidance of the convection parameterization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 144 (714) ◽  
pp. 1572-1590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew J. Lipson ◽  
Marcus Thatcher ◽  
Melissa A. Hart ◽  
Andrew Pitman

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5401-5423
Author(s):  
Yuan Zhang ◽  
Ana Bastos ◽  
Fabienne Maignan ◽  
Daniel Goll ◽  
Olivier Boucher ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aerosol- and cloud-induced changes in diffuse light have important impacts on the global land carbon cycle, as they alter light distribution and photosynthesis in vegetation canopies. However, this effect remains poorly represented or evaluated in current land surface models. Here, we add a light partitioning module and a new canopy light transmission module to the ORCHIDEE (Organising Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems) land surface model (trunk version, v5453) and use the revised model, ORCHIDEE_DF, to estimate the fraction of diffuse light and its effect on gross primary production (GPP) in a multilayer canopy. We evaluate the new parameterizations using flux observations from 159 eddy covariance sites over the globe. Our results show that, compared with the original model, ORCHIDEE_DF improves the GPP simulation under sunny conditions and captures the observed higher photosynthesis under cloudier conditions in most plant functional types (PFTs). Our results also indicate that the larger GPP under cloudy conditions compared with sunny conditions is mainly driven by increased diffuse light in the morning and in the afternoon as well as by a decreased vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and decreased air temperature at midday. The observations show that the strongest positive effects of diffuse light on photosynthesis are found in the range from 5 to 20 ∘C and at a VPD < 1 kPa. This effect is found to decrease when the VPD becomes too large or the temperature falls outside of the abovementioned range, which is likely due to the increasing stomatal resistance to leaf CO2 uptake. ORCHIDEE_DF underestimates the diffuse light effect at low temperature in all PFTs and overestimates this effect at high temperature and at a high VPD in grasslands and croplands. The new model has the potential to better investigate the impact of large-scale aerosol changes and long-term changes in cloudiness on the terrestrial carbon budget, both in the historical period and in the context of future air quality policies and/or climate engineering.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma Tafasca ◽  
Agnès Ducharne ◽  
Christian Valentin

Abstract. Soil physical properties play an important role for estimating soil water and energy fluxes. Many hydrological and land surface models (LSMs) use soil texture maps to infer these properties. Here, we investigate the impact of soil texture on soil water fluxes and storage at global scale using the ORCHIDEE LSM, forced by several complex or globally-uniform soil texture maps. The model shows a realistic sensitivity of runoff processes and soil moisture to soil texture, and reveals that medium textures give the highest evapotranspiration and lowest total runoff rates. The three tested complex soil texture maps being rather similar by construction, especially when upscaled at the 0.5° resolution used here, they result in similar water budgets at all scales, compared to the uncertainties of observation-based products and meteorological forcing datasets. A useful outcome is that the choice of the input soil texture map is not crucial for large-scale modelling. The added-value of more detailed soil information (horizontal and vertical resolution, soil composition) deserves further studies.


2022 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Buechel ◽  
Louise Slater ◽  
Simon Dadson

AbstractAmbitious afforestation proposals in the last decade target potential flood mitigation and carbon storage benefits but without a systematic, large-scale (>1000 km2) quantitative evaluation of their impacts on streamflow. Here, we assess the impact of afforestation on streamflow across twelve diverse catchments (c.500-10,000 km2) using a high-resolution land-surface model with a large ensemble of afforestation scenarios. Afforestation consistently decreases median and low streamflow. Median modelled flow is reduced by 2.8% ± 1.0 (1 s.d.), or 10 mm yr−1 ± 2.1 (1 s.d.), for a ten-percentage point increase in catchment broadleaf woodland. We find no nationally-consistent reduction of extreme floods. In larger catchments, planting extent is a stronger control on streamflow than location. Our results suggest that despite its potential environmental and societal benefits, widespread afforestation may inadvertently reduce water availability, particularly in drier areas, whilst only providing a modest reduction in extreme flood flows.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 3753-3774
Author(s):  
Salma Tafasca ◽  
Agnès Ducharne ◽  
Christian Valentin

Abstract. Soil physical properties play an important role in estimating soil water and energy fluxes. Many hydrological and land surface models (LSMs) use soil texture maps to infer these properties. Here, we investigate the impact of soil texture on soil water fluxes and storage at different scales using the ORCHIDEE (ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEms) LSM, forced by several complex or globally uniform soil texture maps. At the point scale, the model shows a realistic sensitivity of runoff processes and soil moisture to soil texture and reveals that loamy textures give the highest evapotranspiration and lowest total runoff rates. The three tested complex soil texture maps result in similar water budgets at all scales, compared to the uncertainties of observation-based products and meteorological forcing datasets, although important differences can be found at the regional scale, particularly in areas where the different maps disagree on the prevalence of clay soils. The three tested soil texture maps are also found to be similar by construction, with a shared prevalence of loamy textures, and have a spatial overlap over 40 % between each pair of maps, which explains the overall weak impact of soil texture map change. A useful outcome is that the choice of the input soil texture map is not crucial for large-scale modelling, but the added value of more detailed soil information (horizontal and vertical resolution, soil composition) deserves further studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 2031-2055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schwitalla ◽  
Hans-Stefan Bauer ◽  
Volker Wulfmeyer ◽  
Kirsten Warrach-Sagi

Abstract. Increasing computational resources and the demands of impact modelers, stake holders, and society envision seasonal and climate simulations with the convection-permitting resolution. So far such a resolution is only achieved with a limited-area model whose results are impacted by zonal and meridional boundaries. Here, we present the setup of a latitude-belt domain that reduces disturbances originating from the western and eastern boundaries and therefore allows for studying the impact of model resolution and physical parameterization. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled to the NOAH land–surface model was operated during July and August 2013 at two different horizontal resolutions, namely 0.03 (HIRES) and 0.12° (LOWRES). Both simulations were forced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational analysis data at the northern and southern domain boundaries, and the high-resolution Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) data at the sea surface.The simulations are compared to the operational ECMWF analysis for the representation of large-scale features. To analyze the simulated precipitation, the operational ECMWF forecast, the CPC MORPHing (CMORPH), and the ENSEMBLES gridded observation precipitation data set (E-OBS) were used as references.Analyzing pressure, geopotential height, wind, and temperature fields as well as precipitation revealed (1) a benefit from the higher resolution concerning the reduction of monthly biases, root mean square error, and an improved Pearson skill score, and (2) deficiencies in the physical parameterizations leading to notable biases in distinct regions like the polar Atlantic for the LOWRES simulation, the North Pacific, and Inner Mongolia for both resolutions.In summary, the application of a latitude belt on a convection-permitting resolution shows promising results that are beneficial for future seasonal forecasting.


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