Events Calendar

Field measurements and numerical modeling of energy transport in urban areas

Speaker: Zhihua Wang, Princeton University

Talk Title: Field measurements and numerical modeling of energy transport in urban areas

Abstract: Changes of surface landuse types, resulting from rapid global urbanization and anthropogenic stressors, have significant impacts on urban environmental and engineered systems such as heat island formation and modification of the hydrological cycle and air quality. A better understanding of the transport and storage of energy in urban areas, in particular, is essential to the long term sustainability of cities. The last few decades have seen increasing efforts to characterize the energy transport in the lower urban atmosphere; one of the useful tools that have emerged is the physically-based urban canopy model (UCM). We developed an energy transport model based on the single-layer UCM used in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Our implementation does not require coupling to an atmospheric flow model and features several improvements in the urban surface energy exchange scheme including: (1) derivation and implementation of a spatially-analytical method that captures surface temperatures and heat storage better, (2) statistical characterization of uncertainties in the surface input parameter space using Markov-Chain Monte Carlo simulations, and (3) coupling to a hydrological model to better parameterize the water transport and evaporation from urban surfaces. Intensive field measurements are also carried out through a large wireless network of sensors deployed over the campus of Princeton University. Data collected from the sensor network are used to provide input parameters as well as to validate the proposed numerical scheme.

Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Erin Sigman