Sensitivity of precipitation statistics to urban growth in a subtropical coastal megacity cluster

被引：2

作者：

Christopher Claus Holst ^{[1
]}

Johnny C.L.Chan ^{[1
,2
]}

Chi-Yung Tam ^{[3
]}

机构：

[1] School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong

[2] Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre, City University of Hong Kong

[3] Earth System Science Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

来源：

Journal of Environmental Sciences | 2017年 / 09期

关键词：

Urban precipitation; Micro climate sensitivity; Urbanization;

D O I：

暂无

中图分类号：

TU992 [排水工程（沟渠工程、下水道工程）];

学科分类号：

0815 ;

摘要：

This short paper presents an investigation on how human activities may or may not affect precipitation based on numerical simulations of precipitation in a benchmark case with modified lower boundary conditions, representing different stages of urban development in the model. The results indicate that certain degrees of urbanization affect the likelihood of heavy precipitation significantly, while less urbanized or smaller cities are much less prone to these effects. Such a result can be explained based on our previous work where the sensitivity of precipitation statistics to surface anthropogenic heat sources lies in the generation of buoyancy and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer and dissipation through triggering of convection. Thus only mega cities of sufficient size, and hence human-activity-related anthropogenic heat emission, can expect to experience such effects. In other words, as cities grow, their effects upon precipitation appear to grow as well.

引用

页码：6 / 12

页数：7