Title: Development and integration of a subgrid urban surface scheme in a limited area model

Authors: Antonio Cantelli; Paolo Monti; Giovanni Leuzzi

Addresses: DIMA, Sapienza University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy ' DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy ' DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy

Abstract: The sub-grid model, sub-grid town energy budget (STEB), is developed in order to reproduce the surface energy budget over large urban areas. The STEB evaluates the energy budget of each building belonging to a built area by employing an accurate description of the canyon geometry. The STEB is coupled with the limited area model RAMS to simulate the urban heat island over the city of Rome, Italy. The model is initialised with a suitable urban digital elevation model, accounting for nearly 360,000 buildings. The results show that the coupled system RAMS-STEB reproduces adequately the behaviour of the main meteorological quantities.

Keywords: buildings; street canyons; urban heat islands; UHIs; town energy budget; TEB; surface energy balance; sky view factor; SVF; meso-scale models; urban canopy; urban boundary layers; climate; simulation; air circulation; Rome; Italy; atmospheric dispersion modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2014.065918

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2014 Vol.55 No.1/2/3/4, pp.230 - 237

Published online: 17 Dec 2014 *

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