Urban Meteorology Forecasting, Monitoring, and Meeting Users' Needs (2012) / Chapter Skim
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4 Future Directions
4 Future Directions
Pages 93-110
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From page 93... ...
4 Future Directions As Chapter 3 shows, there is considerable physical science knowledge and effort toward monitoring and forecasting weather in the urban environment -- a product of decades of research. On the other hand, Chapter 2 is a more general, high-level, largely anecdotal summary of end users and their needs.
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The second and third short-term needs are related to research needs; the fourth one is related to the need for translating established science to practi cal applications for end users, while the first one is related to both research and translation needs. Observational Data One significant need in urban meteorology is for improved high spa tial and temporal resolution observational data.
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. Short-term need #1: maximum access to observational data in different categories from diverse sources, by • securing access to existing data sets from previous urban campaigns (e.g., through central archives for existing urban data sets and corresponding metadata)
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. Short-term need #2: regularly updated metadata of the urban observations using standardized urban protocols.
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS 97 Model Intercomparisons There have been numerous model intercomparison projects in the past three decades, such as the intercomparison of global atmosphere-land coupled models, regional atmosphere-land coupled models, land surface models, atmosphere-ocean-land coupled models, and paleoclimate models. In general, initial intercomparisons help in the discovery of major model deficiencies, such as the lack of energy and water balance in some land surface models, and identification of the importance of certain major processes, such as the role of vegetation in land modeling)
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Short-term need #3: continued and expanded international urban model intercomparisons over urban areas. Communication There are diverse end user groups with different needs in urban meteo rology.
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Working collaboratively with communication scientists can help bridge the gap between end users and urban meteorologists. Short-term need #4: development and application of best practices to strengthen the dialog between urban meteorologists and end user communities.
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100 100 URBAN METEOROLOGY of a much bigger picture of communication that involves how people pro cess information, their past experiences, the channels through which they get information, the influence of what other people around them think and do, and so on. Fully integrating communication science (and other social science disciplines)
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bitmapped raster image New Capabilities for Urban Observations Because it is challenging to obtain representative measurements from individual sites over urban areas, there is a strong need to develop new capabilities in two categories. First, technologies are needed to integrate the information that may be available from the network of personal digital
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, vehicles, and new technologies for measurements in the whole planetary boundary layer? Urbanization of Weather and Climate Models As the horizontal resolution in weather and climate models continues to increase due to advances in the models, urban areas can occupy a whole model grid cell or a large fraction of grid cell.
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change continuously or abruptly? Integrated Urban Meteorology and Decision Support Systems It can be a challenge for scientists to understand one another, even scientists in different subfields of the same discipline (e.g., between modelers and experimentalists in atmospheric science)
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. While the 2m air temperature and humidity are assimilated during the warm seasons to adjust soil moisture in the ECMWF reanalysis, and surface precipitation is assimilated in the NCEP regional reanalysis, most of the land surface data (such as surface skin temperature, 2-m air temperature and humidity, 10m wind speed and direction, and precipitation)
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Community efforts are still needed to address several relevant issues: What is the adequate spatial resolution based on end user needs and data availability? How can we downscale coarse-resolution data to obtain atmospheric forcing data and surface data to characterize urban areas?
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. This urban meteorology-decision support process can then be iterated to develop a strategy that is sufficiently robust across various alterative future scenarios.
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS 107 To meet this challenge of mutual understanding between users and meteorologists, a combination of complementary approaches is required. These approaches include urban testbeds, applied science projects that involve meteorologists and end users, and joint urban meteorology-decision support exercises (e.g., emergency response, climate change-urban planning)
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. Another good example is Shanghai, which is also actively pursuing development of an urban testbed that includes developing advanced observed systems for advanced models and providing actionable information that addresses user needs.
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R02149 Urban Meteorology Box Figure 4-2(2) bitmapped raster image
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Challenge #3: How will the capability for integrated urban meteorology decision support systems be developed through the integration of • support for future intensive urban research projects that integrate modeling and observations and focus on improving the fundamental knowl edge of physics and dynamics in the urban atmosphere, • increased dialogue between urban meteorologists and end users, and • urban meteorology testbeds? FINAL THOUGHTS The field of urban meteorology has grown considerably in the past 50 years, and with the increased growth of cities worldwide, including the United States, there is a pressing need for continued scientific advances within the field.
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