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A Vegetated Urban Canopy Model for Meteorological and Environmental Modelling

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Abstract

An urban canopy model is developed for use in mesoscale meteorological and environmental modelling. The urban geometry is composed of simple homogeneous buildings characterized by the canyon aspect ratio (h/w) as well as the canyon vegetation characterized by the leaf aspect ratio (σ l ) and leaf area density profile. Five energy exchanging surfaces (roof, wall, road, leaf, soil) are considered in the model, and energy conservation relations are applied to each component. In addition, the temperature and specific humidity of canopy air are predicted without the assumption of thermal equilibrium. For radiative transfer within the canyon, multiple reflections for shortwave radiation and one reflection for longwave radiation are considered, while the shadowing and absorption of radiation due to the canyon vegetation are computed by using the transmissivity and the leaf area density profile function. The model is evaluated using field measurements in Vancouver, British Columbia and Marseille, France. Results show that the model quite well simulates the observations of surface temperatures, canopy air temperature and specific humidity, momentum flux, net radiation, and energy partitioning into turbulent fluxes and storage heat flux. Sensitivity tests show that the canyon vegetation has a large influence not only on surface temperatures but also on the partitioning of sensible and latent heat fluxes. In addition, the surface energy balance can be affected by soil moisture content and leaf area index as well as the fraction of vegetation. These results suggest that a proper parameterization of the canyon vegetation is prerequisite for urban modelling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Shilim-Dong Gwanak-Gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Sang-Hyun Lee & Soon-Ung Park

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  1. Sang-Hyun Lee
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  2. Soon-Ung Park
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Correspondence to Soon-Ung Park.

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Lee, SH., Park, SU. A Vegetated Urban Canopy Model for Meteorological and Environmental Modelling. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 126, 73–102 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-007-9221-6

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