Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Sensitivity of mesoscale modeling to urban morphological feature inputs and implications for characterizing urban sustainability

Journal Article · · npj Urban Sustainability
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Boston Univ., MA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We examine the differences in meteorological output from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model run at 270 m horizontal resolution using 10 m, 100 m and 1 km resolution 3D neighborhood morphological inputs and with no morphological inputs. We find that the spatial variability in temperature, humidity, and other meteorological variables across the city can vary with the resolution and the coverage of the 3D urban morphological input, and that larger differences occur between simulations run without 3D morphological input and those run with some type of 3D morphology. We also find that the inclusion of input-building-defined roughness length calculations would improve simulation results further. We show that these inputs produce different patterns of heat wave spatial heterogeneity across the city of Washington, DC. These findings suggest that understanding neighborhood level urban sustainability under extreme heat waves, especially for vulnerable neighborhoods, requires attention to the representation of surface terrain in numerical weather models.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2479796
Journal Information:
npj Urban Sustainability, Journal Name: npj Urban Sustainability Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 4; ISSN 2661-8001
Publisher:
Springer NatureCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (54)

Exploring historical and future urban climate in the Earth System Modeling framework: 2. Impact of urban land use over the Continental United States journal June 2016
Revisiting summertime hot extremes in China during 1961-2015: Overlooked compound extremes and significant changes: Overlooked Changes of Hot Extremes journal May 2017
Contribution of urbanization to the increase of extreme heat events in an urban agglomeration in east China: Urbanization and the Increase of EHEs journal July 2017
Evaluation of the WRF‐Urban Modeling System Coupled to Noah and Noah‐MP Land Surface Models Over a Semiarid Urban Environment journal March 2018
The integrated WRF/urban modelling system: development, evaluation, and applications to urban environmental problems journal January 2011
Seasonal dependence of WRF model biases and sensitivity to PBL schemes over Europe journal June 2012
Simplified expressions for vegetation roughness length and zero-plane displacement as functions of canopy height and area index journal October 1994
Sensitivity of simulated temperature, precipitation, and global radiation to different WRF configurations over the Carpathian Basin for regional climate applications journal August 2020
Progress towards better weather forecasts for city dwellers: from short range to climate change journal September 2005
Street design and urban canopy layer climate journal March 1988
On the impact of urban surface exchange parameterisations on air quality simulations: the Athens case journal September 2003
An improved method for the estimation of surface roughness of obstacle arrays journal June 1998
Highly resolved WRF-BEP/BEM simulations over Barcelona urban area with LCZ journal January 2021
Positive visions for guiding urban transformations toward sustainable futures journal October 2016
Impacts of the morphology of new neighborhoods on microclimate and building energy journal November 2020
Methodology for estimating solar potential on multiple building rooftops for photovoltaic systems journal October 2013
An idealized study of city structure, urban climate, energy consumption, and air quality journal December 2014
Predicting surface temperature variation in urban settings using real-time weather forecasts journal June 2017
Evaluation of uWRF performance and modeling guidance based on WUDAPT and NUDAPT UCP datasets for Hong Kong journal June 2019
Sky view factor calculations and its application in urban heat island studies journal December 2019
Sensitivity analysis of urban microclimatic conditions and building energy consumption on urban parameters by means of idealized numerical simulations journal December 2020
Modeling potential air temperature reductions yielded by cool roofs and urban irrigation in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area journal May 2021
Spatial variability of diurnal temperature range and its associations with local climate zone, neighborhood environment and mortality in Los Angeles journal May 2023
An Urban Surface Exchange Parameterisation for Mesoscale Models journal August 2002
Stronger Contributions of Urbanization to Heat Wave Trends in Wet Climates journal October 2018
Estimating Heat‐Related Exposures and Urban Heat Island Impacts: A Case Study for the 2012 Chicago Heatwave journal January 2022
Development of a turbulence closure model for geophysical fluid problems journal January 1982
Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities journal May 2021
Simulated cold bias being improved by using MODIS time-varying albedo in the Tibetan Plateau in WRF model journal April 2018
Interacting implications of climate change, population dynamics, and urban heat mitigation for future exposure to heat extremes journal August 2019
More Intense, More Frequent, and Longer Lasting Heat Waves in the 21st Century journal August 2004
Combining maps and street level images for building height and facade estimation conference October 2016
The Impact of Anthropogenic Heat on Formation of Urban Heat Island and Energy Consumption Balance journal January 2011
Aerodynamic Properties of Urban Areas Derived from Analysis of Surface Form journal September 1999
Parameterization of Orography-Induced Turbulence in a Mesobeta--Scale Model journal August 1989
National Urban Database and Access Portal Tool journal August 2009
A Study of the Urban Boundary Layer Using Different Urban Parameterizations and High-Resolution Urban Canopy Parameters with WRF journal May 2011
Analyzing the Sensitivity of WRF’s Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model to Parameter Uncertainty Using Advanced Monte Carlo Simulation journal September 2011
North American Regional Reanalysis journal March 2006
WUDAPT: An Urban Weather, Climate, and Environmental Modeling Infrastructure for the Anthropocene journal September 2018
Relative Role of Turbulent and Radiative Flux on the Near-Surface Temperature in a Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model over Houston journal August 2017
Model Simulation and Projection of European Heat Waves in Present-Day and Future Climates journal May 2014
Heat Waves in Southern China: Synoptic Behavior, Long-Term Change, and Urbanization Effects journal January 2017
Impact of Urbanization on Heavy Convective Precipitation under Strong Large-Scale Forcing: A Case Study over the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan Region journal February 2014
Evaluation and Bias Correction in WRF Model Forecasting of Precipitation and Potential Evapotranspiration journal May 2019
“Gray Zone” Simulations Using a Three-Dimensional Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model journal July 2022
Lessons from the removal of lead from gasoline for controlling other environmental pollutants: A case study from New Zealand journal January 2008
Heat Waves in the United States: Mortality Risk during Heat Waves and Effect Modification by Heat Wave Characteristics in 43 U.S. Communities journal February 2011
Toward a Quantitative Estimate of Future Heat Wave Mortality under Global Climate Change journal May 2011
Coupling a Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model with a Simple Atmospheric Model: Impact on Urban Heat Island Simulation for an Idealized Case journal January 2004
Evaluations of WRF Sensitivities in Surface Simulations with an Ensemble Prediction System journal March 2018
Integrating Satellite and Ground Measurements for Predicting Locations of Extreme Urban Heat journal January 2019
Dimensions of Thermal Inequity: Neighborhood Social Demographics and Urban Heat in the Southwestern U.S. journal January 2021
NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Global 30 arc second dataset January 2013

Similar Records

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES