Co-evolution of Anthropogenic Stressors and Regional Urban Hydroclimate through Multiscale Land-Atmosphere Interactions

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates how human activities in urban areas interact with regional hydroclimate via land-atmosphere interactions. Over past decades, human activities are drastically transforming the Earth system, giving rise to global changes at unparalleled rates and scales. Among these changes, urbanization has emerged as the most irreversible and human-dominated form. This study quantifies the emission and transport of heat, moisture, and greenhouse gases due to human activities in cities and examines their interplay with changes in regional hydrometeorology. Understanding the emergent hydroclimatic patterns due to future development of cities leads to improved predictive skills of urban environmental modeling, and is of broad interest for city planners, policy makers, and the general public. This project actively engages stakeholders, especially those from local cities, for project evaluation and outreach activities through regular meetings, climate briefings, and annual workshops. This project recruits one graduate student in research, education and outreach activities. In addition, this project contributes to the education of participating pre-college and undergraduate students via summer research programs to cultivate their interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The research activities focus on characterizing anthropogenic dynamics arising in U.S. cities and its co-evolution with regional hydrometeorology, using Phoenix Metropolitan as a specific study area. Specific research objectives include: (1) quantify population dynamics, anthropogenic heat, moisture, CO2 emission, and their nonlinear interactions, (2) incorporate anthropogenic dynamics into a new urban modeling system; (3) perform scenario analysis of urban land use and future climate changes in the study area. The major scientific outcomes of this project include a new urban land surface model incorporating the parameterization anthropogenic stressors, and improved skill of numerical weather prediction over U.S. urban areas. The scenario study in this project that embraces a wide spectrum of urban expansion and climate change storylines is informative to researchers and urban planners in finding sustainable solutions to pressing urban environmental issues. The project also helps to better prepare the general public for climate-sensitive development of future cities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.