Huang et al. (2026) Multi‐scale flow analysis for scale‐aware urban canopy models

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

Identification

• Journal: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-04
• Authors: Jingzi Huang, Maarten van Reeuwijk
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.70305

Research Groups

• University of Bristol, Department of Civil Engineering
• [Other research groups involved in the study are not specified]

Short Summary

This study applies a multi-scale coarse-graining framework to investigate the impact of urban morphology on flow heterogeneity and assess the applicability of urban parameterisations at high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The results highlight the importance of considering the characteristic urban length-scale of morphology-dependent flow heterogeneity when developing scale-aware urban canopy models.

Objective

• Investigate how flow heterogeneity is partitioned between resolved and unresolved contributions in urban environments with varying morphologies

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Building-resolving large-eddy simulations (LES) of the University of Bristol campus, a realistic heterogeneous urban environment
• Temporal Scale: Not specified

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Multi-scale coarse-graining framework applied to building-resolving LES
• Data sources: Large-eddy simulation data for two related morphologies: original layout and modified configuration with infilled open-space contrasts

Main Results

• The characteristic urban length-scale of flow heterogeneity is morphology-dependent, with m = 100 m for the original layout and m = 50 m for the modified case.
• Parameterisations derived from idealised geometries perform reasonably well only at sufficiently large averaging length-scales (L > 500 m), corresponding to coarse resolutions.
• At smaller averaging lengths, their fidelity degrades rapidly due to increasing heterogeneity and filter-to-filter variability in morphology.

Contributions

• This study provides a systematic route to diagnose the characteristic urban length-scale of morphology-dependent flow heterogeneity and guide the development of scale-aware urban canopy models for high-resolution NWP.
• The results highlight the importance of considering neighbourhood-scale organisation at resolutions relevant to next-generation NWP.

Funding

• [Funding information is not provided in the abstract]

Citation

@article{Huang2026Multiscale,
  author = {Huang, Jingzi and Reeuwijk, Maarten van},
  title = {Multi‐scale flow analysis for scale‐aware urban canopy models},
  journal = {Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/qj.70305},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70305}
}