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Impact of Megacity Shanghai on the Urban Heat-Island Effects over the Downstream City Kunshan

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Abstract

The impact of upstream urbanization on the enhanced urban heat-island (UHI) effects between Shanghai and Kunshan is investigated by analyzing seven years of surface observations and results from mesoscale model simulations. The observational analysis indicates that, under easterly and westerly winds, the temperature difference between Shanghai and Kunshan increases with wind speed when the wind speed \(<\)5 m s\(^{-1}\). The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical model, coupled with a one-layer urban canopy model (UCM), is used to examine the UHI structure and upstream effects by replacing the urban surface of Shanghai and/or Kunshan with cropland. The WRF/UCM modelling system is capable of reproducing the surface temperature and wind field reasonably well. The simulated urban canopy wind speed is a better representation of the near-surface wind speed than is the 10-m wind speed at the centre of Shanghai. Without the urban landscape of Shanghai, the surface air temperature over downstream Kunshan would decrease by 0.2–0.4 \(^{\circ }\)C in the afternoon and 0.4–0.6 \(^{\circ }\)C in the evening. In the simulation with the urban landscape of Shanghai, a shallow cold layer is found above the UHI, with a minimum temperature of about \(-0.2\) to \(-\)0.5 \(^{\circ }\)C during the afternoon hours. Strong horizontal divergence is found in this cold layer. The easterly breeze over Shanghai is strengthened at the surface by strong UHI effects, but weakened at upper levels. With the appearance of the urban landscape specific humidity decreases by 0.5–1 g kg\(^{-1}\) within the urban area because of the waterproof property of an urban surface. On the other hand, the upper-level specific humidity is increased because of water vapour transferred by the strong upward vertical motions.

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Notes

  1. The altitude of the lowest 22 levels are given as follows (units: m): 20, 46, 76, 111, 150, 194, 242, 294, 347, 401, 454, 517, 589, 667, 749, 837, 930, 1034, 1157, 1301, 1506 and 1963.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.41275143), the Special Fund for Meteorological Research in the Public Interest under Grant (GYHY201206011), the Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Jiangsu Province, China (12KJA170003), the Jiangsu Province “333” Project and Six Talent Peaks project and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). Thanks are due to D.L. Zhang (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science University of Maryland) for his helpful suggestions and discussions.

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Correspondence to Bin Zhu.

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Kang, HQ., Zhu, B., Zhu, T. et al. Impact of Megacity Shanghai on the Urban Heat-Island Effects over the Downstream City Kunshan. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 152, 411–426 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-014-9927-1

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