Liu et al. (2025) Heterogeneity Impacts Urban Roughness for Earth System Modeling

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-07-07
• Authors: Shaofeng Liu, Lingke Li, Hua Yuan, Zhongwang Wei, Nan Wei, Xingjie Lu, Shupeng Zhang, Xian‐Xiang Li, Yongjiu Dai
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl116015

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

The study proposes a physics-based aerodynamic parameterization (RUR) using multi-layer division and a drag-force approach to account for urban heterogeneities, significantly improving the estimation of roughness length and surface fluxes.

Objective

• To develop a physics-based aerodynamic parameterization for real urban surfaces (RUR) that accounts for urban heterogeneities to improve the estimation of displacement height ($d$) and roughness length ($z_0$).

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Urban canopies/urban surfaces.
• Temporal Scale: Not specified.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: RUR (proposed physics-based parameterization), classical aerodynamic schemes.
• Data sources: Evaluation data from real urban surfaces.

Main Results

• The RUR scheme generally outperforms classical aerodynamic schemes.
• RUR provides significantly more accurate estimates of the roughness length ($z_0$).
• Improved $z_0$ estimates lead to enhanced surface flux estimations, particularly in relatively rough urban environments.

Contributions

• Introduces a method to represent urban heterogeneities via vertical profiles of roughness density using a drag-force approach, replacing empirical representations with a physics-based foundation for earth system modeling.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Liu2025Heterogeneity,
  author = {Liu, Shaofeng and Shi, Qingche and Li, Lingke and Yuan, Hua and Wei, Zhongwang and Wei, Nan and Lu, Xingjie and Zhang, Shupeng and Li, Xian‐Xiang and Dai, Yongjiu},
  title = {Heterogeneity Impacts Urban Roughness for Earth System Modeling},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl116015},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl116015}
}