Objective

The goal is to develop an integrated, multi-scale urban modeling system for the community Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to address various urban environmental issues, which include the impacts of urban heat islands on regional weather, climate, air quality, public health, and water resources and management.

Description

It is critical for weather and climate models to capture the influences of urban forcing on the wind, temperature, and humidity in the atmospheric boundary layer. To bridge the gaps between traditional mesoscale modeling and microscale modeling, we, in collaboration with national and international agencies and research groups, develop an integrated urban modeling system coupled to the WRF model as a community tool to address urban environmental issues. This tool employs different methods for parameterizing urban land use, ranging from a simple bulk parameterization to a sophisticated multi-layer urban canopy model that directly interacts with the atmospheric boundary layer. It is able to incorporate high-resolution urban morphology data and anthropogenic-heating data using the framework of the National Urban Database and Access Portal Tool (NUDAPT). This model has proven to be a valuable regional climate-modeling tool to investigate the impacts of future urban land-use changes on regional weather conditions and air quality.