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Modeling the Urban Boundary and Canopy Layers
Citation:
CHING, J. K. AND F. Chen. Modeling the Urban Boundary and Canopy Layers. Chapter 25, Harindra Joseph Fernando (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics. CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, Boca Raton, FL, 2:345-358, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL′s) Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD′s research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the Nation′s air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for providing a sound scientific and technical basis for regulatory policies based on air quality models to improve ambient air quality. The models developed by AMAD are being used by EPA, NOAA, and the air pollution community in understanding and forecasting not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations for air quality improvements.
Description:
Today, we are confronted with increasingly more sophisticated application requirements for urban modeling. These include those that address emergency response to acute exposures from toxic releases, health exposure assessments from adverse air quality, energy usage, and characterizing and potential amelioration of heat islands relevant to human sustainability issues. We contend that their requirements cannot be adequately met with simplistic one size fits all atmospheric models primarily due to combination of wide range of scales and complexities of urban structures and land uses. In this context, this chapter provides an overview of modeling scale dependent meso-to-urban scale flows and air quality. Typical modeling methods and approaches for urban modeling in current use are reviewed, the implications and limitations are presented, and the unique features of the urban canopy layer are highlighted.