The Impact of Landscape Characteristics on Urban Surface Energy Balance (Research Area 11.1 STIR)
Abstract
Major Goals: The following objectives was set as major goals for this project: (1) Develop a mathematical model for the coupled heat and water transport, applicable to any urban environmental conditions. Specifically, this model will be used to (a) quantify the phase (and temporal) differences between all urban surface energy budgets and the LST, and (b) characterize the effect of different urban landscape materials (concrete, asphalt, soils, etc.) and vertical water advection (e.g. xeric versus mesic urban vegetation) on the urban SEB. (2) Validate the model by comparisons to observational dataset from field measurements. In particular, the PI will obtain a wide range of dataset covering measurements under different weather conditions, geographic locations, and climatic zones, leveraged by his own urban monitoring campaign, sensor network affiliation, and collaborative research. (3) Assess the impact of phase lags and SEB on building energy efficiency. We will apply the numerical model to assess the impact of different landscape planning strategies of urban mitigation/adaptation via surface energy transport, especially the improvement of building energy efficiency and enhancement of human thermal comfort. Accomplishments: The accomplished goals and major findings, development, and conclusions generated from this project are summarized below: We developed a mathematically tractable solution of heat diffusion-advection equation, based on the Greens function method. The method was validated against field measurements and capable of reconstructing the surface energy balance using single-point measurement, and applicable to water surface as well as urban pavements (as a reduced case). We characterized the thermal behavior of different urban landscape materials (compact and porous concrete, compact and porous asphalt, artificial turf, and landscape gravel) and the impact of vertical advection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1066465
Entities
People
- Zhihua Wang
Organizations
- Arizona State University