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New Cities' Parameterization for Urban Climate Modelling. A Sensitivity test to Local Climate Zones parameters in WRF over Vienna using WUDAPT

Poster · January 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33643.13607

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KU Leuven University of Hamburg
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TU Wien Centro Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
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 New Cities’ Parameterization for Urban Climate Modelling
A Sensitivity test to Local Climate Zones parameters in WRF over Vienna using WUDAPT

O. Brousse ,
1 B. Bechtel ,
2 K. Hammerberg ,
3 A. Martilli ,
4 M. Demuzere ,
1,5 N.P.M. van Lipzig1

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium, oscar.brousse@kuleuven.be ;

2 Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Germany; 3 Department of Architectural Sciences, Vienna Institute of Technology, Austria;
4 Division of Atmospheric Contamination, CIEMAT, Spain; 5 Department of Forest and Water Management, Gent University, Belgium WUDAPT

1. Motivation 2. Setup
LCZ LCZ
10
 Following the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tool (WUDAPT) 9
project, very few studies have investigated the potential of Local Climate 8
Zones (LCZ) for urban climate studies. 7

 The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model using the Building 6

5
Effect Parameterization coupled with the Building Energy Model (BEP-BEM) 4
urban canopy models (UCM) is suitable for the study of models' sensitivity to 3
LCZs' parameters. 2

 By giving a margin of error, this research oversees new possibilities for 1

urban climate modelling guidance in area lacking of data and for further
LCZ map from the city of Vienna following WUDAPT to WRF (W2W).
improvements of the WUDAPT framework.
Two hot summer days during July 2015 with 6 hours’ spin up.
3. Methodology
Parameters LCZ 1 LCZ 2 LCZ 3 LCZ 4 LCZ 5 LCZ 6 LCZ 7 LCZ 8 LCZ 9 LCZ 10
Albedo 0.10 – 0.20 0.10 – 0.20 0.10 – 0.20 0.12 – 0.25 0.12 – 0.25 0.12 – 0.25 0.15 – 035 0.15 – 0.25 0.12 – 0.25 0.12 – 0.20
Variables

Building Heights
25 – 45 10 – 25 5 – 10 25 – 45 10 – 25 5 – 10 5 5 – 10 5 – 10 5 – 15
(BUILD H), meters
Urban Fraction
0.9 – 1.0 0.8 – 1.0 0.7 – 1.0 0.6 – 0.7 0.6 – 0.8 0.4 – 0.7 0.7 – 1.0 0.8 – 1.0 0.2 – 0.4 0.5 – 0.6
(UFRAC)
Building Width 15 17,5 9 32 25 10.5 7 28.8 10 23.8
Fixed

Road Width 15 12.7 5.7 37.5 33.3 12.4 2 32.5 10 28.5

- Number of values 0 317 0 259 331 806 0 342 0 105

Comparison of daily mean air temperatures between extreme values of LCZ parameters simulations using BEP-BEM. Building and Road width are fixed.
4. Sensitivity Test Results on Daily Mean Temperature
T (ºC)

ALBEDO MIN – ALBEDO MAX BUILD H MAX – BUILD H MIN UFRAC MAX – UFRAC MIN

Overall the model was more sensible to the urban fraction variations. Per LCZs parameters’ impact varies greatly (ie. open and industrial areas).

5. Conclusions
 Using WUDAPT mid values of ranges is suitable for urban climate modelling. Yet,
morphological and physical definition of a typical European city impacts the results with a
substantial margin of error for summer case studies .
 Depending on the Local Climate Zone, each parameter has a varying importance in local
climate assumption. In this study, the urban fraction, hence changing the impervious surface
coverage, appears to have the highest uncertainty rate.
 The WUDAPT project should focus on defining a technique to better assume urban
morphological parameters. Also further sensitivity tests need to be done on H/W variations
impact on climate.
6. References
Bechtel, B., Alexander, P., Böhner, J., Ching, J., Conrad, O., Feddema, J., Mills, G.,
See, L. and Stewart, I. 2015. Mapping local climate zones for a worldwide
database of form and function of cities. International Journal of Geographic
Information, 4(1), 199-219. doi:10.3390/ijgi4010199.
Brousse, O., Martilli, A., Foley, M., Mills, G., & Bechtel, B. (2016). WUDAPT, an
efficient land use producing data tool for mesoscale models? Integration of
urban LCZ in WRF over Madrid. Urban Climate, 17, 116-134.
Hammerberg, K., Brousse, O., & Mahdavi, A. (2016). Investigating the suitability
of the WRF model for improving urban climate boundary conditions. Submitted
to the 3rd IBPSA-Italy Conference, Building Simulations Applications 2017.
Martilli, A. (2002). Numerical study of urban impact on boundary layer structure:
Sensitivity to wind speed, urban morphology, and rural soil moisture. Journal of
Applied Meteorology, 41(12), 1247-1266.

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