Air temperature and energy consumption feedbacks within urbanized areas

Abstract

In the 21st century, the climate of expanding megacities and urbanized areas is increasingly forming and changing under the influence of the growing power consumption of the urban economy. To understand the urban climate dynamic and estimate the energy needs of cities in the 21st century, it is necessary to consider not only global and regional climatic factors, but also the presence of feedback between temperature and energy consumption in urbanized areas. This feedback can be both negative and positive, and their significance depends essentially on the climate and landform of the region, system of electricity and heat supply of a city, and some other factors. This article describes the main factors of formation and development of temperature and energy-consumption feedback within urbanized areas in cold and warm seasons when indoor heating or air conditioning is being used. The role of advection in strengthening and weakening of this feedback is studied. The estimates of the parameter and coefficient of feedback strengthening with the influence of anthropogenic heat fluxes and advection on the urban air temperature are presented.