Original paper
Urban Climate Under Change [UC]2 – A National Research Programme for Developing a Building-Resolving Atmospheric Model for Entire City Regions
Scherer, Dieter; Antretter, Florian; Bender, Steffen; Cortekar, Jörg; Emeis, Stefan; Fehrenbach, Ute; Gross, Günter; Halbig, Guido; Hasse, Jens; Maronga, Björn; Raasch, Siegfried; Scherber, Katharina
Meteorologische Zeitschrift Vol. 28 No. 2 (2019), p. 95 - 104
36 references
published: Jun 21, 2019
published online: Feb 28, 2019
manuscript accepted: Jan 24, 2019
manuscript revision received: Jan 14, 2019
manuscript revision requested: Aug 11, 2018
manuscript received: Feb 16, 2018
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
Large cities and urban regions are confronted with rising pressure by environmental pollution, impacts of climate change, as well as natural and health hazards. They are characterised by heterogeneous mosaics of urban structures, causing modifications of atmospheric processes on different temporal and spatial scales. Planning authorities need reliable, locally relevant information on urban atmospheric processes, providing fine spatial resolutions in city quarters or street canyons, as well as projections of future climates, specifically downscaled to individual cities. Therefore, building-resolving urban climate models for entire city regions are required as a tool for urban development and planning, air quality control, as well as for design of actions for climate change mitigation and adaptation. To date, building-resolving atmospheric models covering entire large cities are mostly missing. The German research programme “Urban Climate Under Change” ([UC]2) aims at developing a new urban climate model, acquiring three-dimensional observational data for model testing and validation, and testing its practicability and usability in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to provide a scientifically sound and practicable instrument to address the above mentioned challenges. This article provides an outline of the collaborative activities of the [UC]2 research programme.
Keywords
urban climate • air quality • urban planning • climate change • building-resolving atmospheric model • large eddy simulation • observational data • model validation • applicability tests • data management