Abstract
Urbanization and other changes in land use have an impact on surface-air temperatures. Kalnay and Cai1 report that the observed surface-temperature trend in part of the United States exceeds the trend in the NCEP/NCAR 50-year reanalysis (NNR) and conclude that changes in land use account for the difference (0.035 °C per decade according to their corrected values). Although land-use change may explain some of this discrepancy, the authors do not quantify the impact of the many changes in observational practice that occurred during the analysis period. Our findings indicate that these 'non-climatic' changes have a systematic effect that overwhelms the reported difference in trends and therefore calls Kalnay and Cai's central conclusion into question.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kalnay, E. & Cai, M. Nature 423, 528–531 (2003).
Karl, T. R., Williams, C. N., Young, P. J. & Wendland, W. M. J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol. 25, 145–160 (1986).
Easterling, D. R. et al. United States Historical Climatology Network (US HCN) Monthly Temperature and Precipitation Data (Carbon Dioxide Inform. Anal. Cen., Oak Ridge Natl Lab., Tennessee, publication no. 4500, 1996).
Owen, T. W., Gallo, K. P., Elvidge, C. D. & Baugh, K. E. Int. J. Remote Sensing 19, 3451–3456 (1998).
IPCC Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001).
Hansen, J. et al. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 23947–23964 (2001).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vose, R., Karl, T., Easterling, D. et al. Impact of land-use change on climate. Nature 427, 213–214 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427213b
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/427213b
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Estimating Monthly Surface Air Temperature Using MODIS LST Data and an Artificial Neural Network in the Loess Plateau, China
Chinese Geographical Science (2023)
-
Does Administrative Division Adjustment promote low-carbon city development? Empirical evidence from the “Revoke County to Urban District” in China
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2022)
-
Modeling Landscape Dynamics of Policy Interventions in Karnataka State, India
Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis (2021)
-
Modeling of land-use and land-cover change impact on summertime near-surface temperature variability over the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2021)
-
1/4 to 1/3 of observed warming trends in China from 1980 to 2015 are attributed to land use changes
Climatic Change (2021)