Rapid urbanization induced daily maximum wind speed decline in metropolitan areas: A case study in the Yangtze River Delta (China)

Wind extremes cause many environmental and natural hazard related problems globally, particularly in heavily populated metropolitan areas. However, the underlying causes of maximum wind speed variability in urbanized regions remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated how rapid urbanization in the...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Zhang, Gangfeng, Azorín-Molina, César, Wang, Xuejia, Chen, Deliang, McVicar, Tim R., Guijarro, José A., Chappell, Adrian, Deng, Kaiqiang, Minola, L., Kong, Feng, Wang, Shuo, Shi, Peijung
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/284511
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/284511
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Daily maximum wind speed
Trend
Urbanization
Regional climate model
Yangtze River Delta
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Descripción
Sumario:Wind extremes cause many environmental and natural hazard related problems globally, particularly in heavily populated metropolitan areas. However, the underlying causes of maximum wind speed variability in urbanized regions remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated how rapid urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China, impacted daily maximum wind speed (DMWS) between 1990 and 2015, based on near-surface (10 m height) DMWS observations, reanalysis datasets, and night-time lighting data (a proxy for urbanization). The station observation shows that annual DMWS in the YRD significantly (p < 0.05) declined during 1990–2015, by −0.209 m s−1 decade−1, while slightly (p > 0.1) positive trends were found in NCEP-NCAR1 (+0.048 m s−1 decade−1) and ERA5 (+0.027 m s−1 decade−1). An increasing divergence between the reanalysis output and the station observation since 2005 was found, and those stations located in areas with high rates of urbanization show the strongest negative annual DMWS trend, implying the key role of urbanization in weakening DMWS. This finding is supported by sensitivity experiments conducted using a regional climate model (RegCM4) forced with both 1990 and 2015 land-use and land-cover (LULC) data, where the simulated DMWS using the 2015 LULC data was lower than that simulated using the 1990 LULC data.