Urban Meteorology

According to the United Nations, three out of five people will be living in cities worldwide by the year 2030. The United States continues to experience urbanization with its vast urban corridors on the east and west coasts. Although urban weather is driven by large synoptic and meso-scale features, weather events unique to the urban environment arise from the characteristics of the typical urban setting, such as large areas covered by buildings of a variety of heights; paved streets and parking areas; means to supply electricity, natural gas, water, and raw materials; and generation of waste heat and materials. Urban Meteorology: Forecasting, Monitoring, and Meeting Users' Needs is based largely on the information provided at a Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate community workshop. This book describes the needs for end user communities, focusing in particular on needs that are not being met by current urban-level forecasting and monitoring. Urban Meteorology also describes current and emerging meteorological forecasting and monitoring capabilities that have had and will likely have the most impact on urban areas, some of which are not being utilized by the relevant end user communities. Urban Meteorology explains that users of urban meteorological information need high-quality information available in a wide variety of formats that foster its use and within time constraints set by users' decision processes. By advancing the science and technology related to urban meteorology with input from key end user communities, urban meteorologists can better meet the needs of diverse end users. To continue the advancement within the field of urban meteorology, there are both short-term needs-which might be addressed with small investments but promise large, quick returns-as well as future challenges that could require significant efforts and investments.

According to the United Nations, three out of five people will be living in cities worldwide by the year 2030. The United States continues to experience urbanization with its vast urban corridors on the east and west coasts. Although urban weather is driven by large synoptic and meso-scale features, weather events unique to the urban environment arise from the characteristics of the typical urban setting, such as large areas covered by buildings of a variety of heights; paved streets and parking areas; means to supply electricity, natural gas, water, and raw materials; and generation of waste heat and materials. Urban Meteorology: Forecasting, Monitoring, and Meeting Users' Needs is based largely on the information provided at a Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate community workshop. This book describes the needs for end user communities, focusing in particular on needs that are not being met by current urban-level forecasting and monitoring. Urban Meteorology also describes current and emerging meteorological forecasting and monitoring capabilities that have had and will likely have the most impact on urban areas, some of which are not being utilized by the relevant end user communities. Urban Meteorology explains that users of urban meteorological information need high-quality information available in a wide variety of formats that foster its use and within time constraints set by users' decision processes. By advancing the science and technology related to urban meteorology with input from key end user communities, urban meteorologists can better meet the needs of diverse end users. To continue the advancement within the field of urban meteorology, there are both short-term needs-which might be addressed with small investments but promise large, quick returns-as well as future challenges that could require significant efforts and investments.

The first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates, suitable for students and researchers alike.

Describes the physics of the coastal ocean, for advanced students, researchers, urban planners, and environmental engineers.

This book for the first time gives an overall view of the current situation in urbanization of meteorological and air quality models around the world. It discusses and makes recommendations on the best practice and strategy for urbanization of different types of meteorological and air quality models. Based on the selected presentations given at the COST728 workshop, the contributions are arranged in four parts: urban morphology and databases; parameterizations of urban canopy; strategy for urbanization of different types of models; and evaluation and city case studies / field studies. The chapters treat either dynamic (on wind and turbulent) and thermal effects (on temperature and energy in general). The final chapter of this volume summarizes the discussion and conclusions from the four main topics and provides recommendations and future requirements. This monograph is oriented towards numerical weather prediction and air quality modelling communities.

There is pressing evidence of phenomena, linked to meteorology and climate, which are modifying their temporal occurrence and which have a very evident impact on the safety and health of populations residing in cities. The urban problem at the beginning of the second set of twenty years of the new century requires a complete rethinking of the way of aggregation of man who, today, represents a large part of the world population due to increasingly accelerated urbanization processes over time. The human being has become a citizen, and within the city limits, he tries to develop his life expectancy by seizing opportunities from this. This search for well-being, understood as a complete state of man, at once physiological and psychological and social, can be thwarted by an urban structure that is not functionally capable of providing answers. The climate problem exacerbates this problem by strongly stressing the contradictions of living. Science, technology, and politics are today able to give answers if applied wisely in a joint effort, in a unit of language. This book proposes several solutions that can be implemented today, ranging from a full understanding of phenomena to adaptation policies for solving problems. The most pressing invitation is addressed precisely to politics to make cities more resilient and safe.

The Urban Climate aims to summarize analytical studies directed toward physical understanding of the rural-urban differences in the atmospheric boundary layer. Attempts to quantify conditions have met with some success. There is certainly a clear understanding of the physical relations that create the climatic differences of urbanized areas. Although some of the earlier classical studies are cited here, the emphasis is on the work done during the last decade and a half. This volume comprises 11 chapters, beginning with an introductory chapter discussing the literature surrounding the topic, its historical development, and the problem of local climate modification. The second chapter presents an assessment of the urban atmosphere on a synoptic and local scale, and examines the observational procedures involved. The following chapters then go on to discuss urban air composition; urban energy fluxes; the urban heat island; the urban wind field; models of urban temperature and wind fields; moisture, clouds, and hydrometeors; urban hydrology; special aspects of urban climate; and finally, urban planning. This book will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of meteorology, urban planning, and urban climatology.