Localized Climate and Surface Energy Flux Alterations across an Urban Gradient in the Central U.S.

Abstract

Long-term urban and rural climate data spanning January 1995 through October 2013 were analyzed to investigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in a representative mid-sized city of the central US. Locally distributed climate data were also collected at nested low density urban, recently developed, and high density urban monitoring sites from June through September 2013 to improve mechanistic understanding of spatial variability of the UHI effect based upon urban land use intensity. Long-term analyses (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) indicate significant differences (p < 0.001) between average air temperature (13.47 and 12.89 °C, at the urban and rural site respectively), relative humidity (69.11% and 72.51%, urban and rural respectively), and average wind speed (2.05 and 3.15 m/s urban and rural respectively). Significant differences (p < 0.001) between urban monitoring sites indicate an urban microclimate gradient for all climate variables except precipitation. Results of OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2014, 7 1771 analysis of net radiation and soil heat flux data suggest distinct localized alterations in urban energy budgets due to land use intensity. Study results hold important implications for urban planners and land managers seeking to improve and implement better urban management practices. Results also reinforce the need for distributed urban energy balance investigations.

An Assessment of Mean Areal Precipitation Methods on Simulated Stream Flow: A SWAT Model Performance Assessment

“…The results from the one-way ANOVA tests showed no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the seven-year average precipitation between sites in agreement with a recent publication by Hubbart et al [33]. Hubbart et al [33] showed that the differences in precipitation between urban and rural sites were not significant at the 95% confidence level in the HCW.…”

“…Hubbart et al [33] showed that the differences in precipitation between urban and rural sites were not significant at the 95% confidence level in the HCW. However, precipitation was shown to be slightly greater by 3.3% in the urban area of the watershed indicating a slight influence of urban land use on total annual precipitation in the rapidly urbanizing lower elevations of HCW [38].…”

“…The climate in HCW is dominated by continental polar air masses in the winter and maritime and continental tropical air masses in the summer [32]. The wet season occurs primarily during March through June [33]. A 16-year climate record (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) obtained from the Sanborn Field climate station located on the University of Missouri campus showed that the mean annual total precipitation was 1036 mm, and the mean annual air temperature was 13.3 • C, respectively.…”

Recent Afforestation in the Iowa River and Vorskla River Basins: A Comparative Trends Analysis

“…This is due to the fact that forest ecosystems (biomass and soils) are highly productive in terms of carbon sequestration processes [3,68,69]. In addition, planting trees has long been used as a strategy to mitigate urban heat island effects [70] by multiple mechanisms, including decreased albedo [71].…”

Advancing Understanding of the Surface Water Quality Regime of Contemporary Mixed-Land-Use Watersheds: An Application of the Experimental Watershed Method

“…Land use/land cover change (e.g., forest removal, agricultural conversion, urbanization) has repeatedly and conclusively been shown to alter rates of mass (e.g., sedimentation of waterways, increased nutrient loadings) and energy flux (e.g., urban heat island, water temperature regime change) [1][2][3][4]. Such alterations impact water quality (e.g., chemical composition, pathogen presence and persistence) and quantity regimes (e.g., low flows, peak flows, flooding) [5][6][7][8], and can ultimately result in ecosystem degradation.…”