Effects of urbanization on local winds and thermal environment in Nohbi Plain, coastal region of Central Japan - a numerical analysis by meso-scale meteorological model with k-{epsilon} turbulence model
- Toyahashi Univ. of Technology (Japan)
Japanese large cities, mostly located in coastal region, have rapidly expanded in the last three decades. People in the region now experience warmer and unpleasant thermal environment in summer season, supposedly because of the extensive urbanization. Especially, under fine weather with light synoptic-scale gradient wind, the highest temperature often appears in rather inland area. An explanation to this phenomenon is horizontal transport of heat by the sea breeze which is strongly heated during its passage over the coastal urban area. This study investigated how and how much urbanization in Nohbi Plain of central Japan influences local wind and temperature distribution over the plain and its surrounding region, Nohbi Plain which faces to the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Japanese Alps, and thus is in a typical topographic situation in Japan. For the study we performed numerical simulations using our meso-scale meteorological model which includes k-c model for turbulence. One of the major results obtained is to have clarified a hierarchy in natural and artificial topography of various scales on their contributions to formation of characteristic diurnal pattern of wind and temperature distributions in the plain area. The Japanese Alps, the largest topographic feature in central Japan and often called the roof of Japan, gave the most important influence on the wind, although the mountains are located quite far, around 200 km, from Nohbi Plain. The way for the influence of the high mountains was to warm air mass in upper layer but below 2 km in altitude, over the Nohbi Plain through heat transport due to a large scale circulation consisting of the {open_quotes}flows from plain to plateau in lower layer and plateau to plain in upper layer{close_quotes}. Urbanization in the coastal Nohbi Plain showed little effect on the flow pattern, but caused large temperature rises at surface level in the inland area because of horizontal heat transfer by the sea breeze.
- OSTI ID:
- 466263
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9606185-; TRN: 96:005931-0214
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. international conference on atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality, Seattle, WA (United States), 18-20 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The 5th international atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality conference; PB: 322 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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