Modeling Urban Effects on the Precipitation Component of the Water Cycle

Abstract

Precipitation is an important component of the global water cycle and a proxy for changing climate. Proper understanding and quantification of spatio-temporal precipitation variability is critical for a range of meteorological, hydrological, and climate processes. Past and current literature has presented theories and observational studies on how urbanization affects precipitation. Assessment of the urban environment’s (land use, aerosols, thermal properties) impact on precipitation will be increasingly important in ongoing climate diagnostics and prediction, global water and energy cycle (GWEC) analysis and modeling, weather forecasting, freshwater resource management, urban planning-design, and land-atmosphere-ocean interface processes. This chapter presents a review of findings and methods related to “urban rainfall effect” studies with an emphasis on numerical modeling strategies. Numerical modeling of atmosphere-land interactions enables controlled experimentation to address fundamental research questions.