Urban heat island effect analysis for San Juan, Puerto Rico

Velazquez-Lozada, Alexander; González, Jorge E.; Winter, Amos

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.09.074

Cited by 91 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In addition to an improvement of input parameters, in terms of analysis of the model results, a better representation of the cloud base height differences should be explored. Projections for future climate changes in tropical coastal regions could be performed using both different GHG emissions scenarios [Meehl et al, 2007] and statistical data for future population growth as a proxy for urban development [Velazquez-Lozada et al, 2006]. Downscaled and detailed climate change projections need to be a priority in order for critical mitigation strategies and adaptation policies to be established.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All runs performed will span the 3 month period of April-June, i.e., the Puerto Rican ERS (Figure 1). This part of the year is the most convenient to conduct LCLU changes studies in Puerto Rico [Velazquez-Lozada et al, 2006], and represents the end of the dry season and the onset of the midsummer drought [Magaña et al, 1999], a critical period in the annual hydrological cycle of the island, during which the atmospheric model has performed satisfactorily [Comarazamy and González, 2008]. A spin-up time of one week is specified at the start of each 3 month simulation to allow for numerical stabilization of the atmospheric model and the numerous submodels and parameterizations available in the modeling system.…”

Section: General Model Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The thick solid vertical line in both panels represents the location of the north-south vertical cross section in Figure 5. temperature and precipitation, making it an appropriate tool to conduct climate impact studies across Puerto Rico [Velazquez-Lozada et al, 2006;Comarazamy et al, 2006;Comarazamy and González, 2008;.…”

Section: General Model Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regional long-term climate change (1950-2000) in the midtropical Atlantic and its impacts on the hydrological cycle of Puerto Rico

Comarazamy

González

2011

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] Large-scale climate data for the north tropical Atlantic (NTA) region show that air temperatures have increased during the past 50 years (1955-1959 to 2000-2004) with moderate warming near the Caribbean islands to considerable heating in the northern region. This pattern may be driven by sea surface temperature anomalies in the same region of study that follow relatively small changes in the Caribbean basin to stronger anomalies in the northeast. These changes might be associated with changes in the long-term pattern of the NTA high-pressure system that drives climate in the region. A series of mesoscale numerical experiments were designed to study the regional impacts these large-scale changes have on the hydrological cycle of the island of Puerto Rico. Results indicate that increased easterly surface winds for the 1950-2000 time frame disrupts a pattern of inland moisture advection and convergence zone, increasing cloud base heights and reducing the total column liquid water content over high elevations. This combination of factors produces a reduction in precipitation over the central and eastern mountains of Puerto Rico.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: General Model Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Regional long-term climate change (1950-2000) in the midtropical Atlantic and its impacts on the hydrological cycle of Puerto Rico

Comarazamy

González

2011

J. Geophys. Res.

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“…The effects of urbanization on local climate were first observed in Europe centuries ago (as cited in [8]) leading to the recognition of what is now known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Although there has been considerable interest in evaluating temperature differences between urban areas and their rural surroundings [3,[9][10][11][12][13][14], studies of variations in long-term precipitation due to urbanization [6,15,16] or other changes in land use and land cover (LULC), such as deforestation/afforestation, are limited [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A variety of climate studies have been undertaken in Puerto Rico addressing temperature regionalization [20,21], precipitation regionalization [20][21][22][23][24][25], rainfall classification [22,26,27], regional synoptic influences [24], urban heat islands [8,12], and using observation and numerical experiments [8,12,28] (Table 1). The work presented here characterizes precipitation patterns in Puerto Rico and provides a first attempt to assess in detail the question of whether long-term spatial and temporal changes in precipitation reflect variations related to local land use and land cover changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Urban Development on Precipitation in the Tropical Maritime Climate of Puerto Rico

Torres-Valcárcel

Harbor

Gonzalez-Avilés

et al. 2014

Climate

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Abstract:Water is critical for sustaining natural and managed ecosystems, and precipitation is a key component in the water cycle. To understand controls on long-term changes in precipitation for scientific and environmental management applications it is necessary to examine whether local land use and land cover change (LULCC) has played a significant role in changing historical precipitation patterns and trends. For the small tropical island of Puerto Rico, where maritime climate is dominant, we used long-term precipitation and land use and land cover data to assess whether there were any detectable impacts of LULCC on monthly and yearly precipitation patterns and trends over the past century. Particular focus was given to detecting impacts from the urban landscape on mesoscale climates across Puerto Rico. We found no statistical evidence for significant differences between average monthly precipitation in urban and non-urban areas directly from surface stations, but, after subdividing by Holdridge Ecological Life Zones (HELZs) in a GIS, there were statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) in yearly average total precipitation between urban and non-urban areas in most HELZs. Precipitation in Puerto Rico has been decreasing over the past century as a result of a decrease in precipitation during periods (months or years) of low rain. However, precipitation trends at particular stations contradict synoptic-scale long-term trends, which suggests that local land use/land cover effects are driving precipitation variability at local scales. OPEN ACCESSClimate 2014, 2 48

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Ring of impact from the mega‐urbanization of Beijing between 2000 and 2009

et al. 2015

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The transient climate, soil, and air quality impacts of the rapid urbanization of Beijing between 2000 and 2009 are investigated with three-dimensional computer model simulations. The simulations integrate a new satellite data set for urban extent and a geolocated crowd-sourced data set for road surface area and consider differences only in urban land cover and its physical properties. The simulations account for changes in meteorologically driven natural emissions but do not include changes in anthropogenic emissions resulting from urbanization and road network variations. The astounding urbanization, which quadrupled Beijing urban extent between 2000 and 2009 in terms of physical infrastructure change, created a ring of impact that decreased surface albedo, increased ground and near-surface air temperatures, increased vertical turbulent kinetic energy, and decreased the near-surface relative humidity and wind speed. The meteorological changes alone decreased near-surface particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NO x ), and many other chemicals due to vertical dilution but increased near-surface ozone due to the higher temperature and lower NO. Vertical dilution and wind stagnation increased elevated pollution layers and column aerosol extinction. In sum, the ring of impact around Beijing may have increased urban heating, dried soil, mixed pollutants vertically, aggravated air stagnation, and increased near-surface oxidant pollution even before accounting for changes in anthropogenic emissions.

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Urban heat island effect analysis for San Juan, Puerto Rico

Cited by 91 publications

References 22 publications

Regional long-term climate change (1950-2000) in the midtropical Atlantic and its impacts on the hydrological cycle of Puerto Rico

Regional long-term climate change (1950-2000) in the midtropical Atlantic and its impacts on the hydrological cycle of Puerto Rico

Impacts of Urban Development on Precipitation in the Tropical Maritime Climate of Puerto Rico

Ring of impact from the mega‐urbanization of Beijing between 2000 and 2009

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