The Water Balance Representation in Urban‐PLUMBER Land Surface Models

Abstract Urban Land Surface Models (ULSMs) simulate energy and water exchanges between the urban surface and atmosphere. However, earlier systematic ULSM comparison projects assessed the energy balance but ignored the water balance, which is coupled to the energy balance. Here, we analyze the water balance representation in 19 ULSMs participating in the Urban‐PLUMBER project using results for 20 sites spread across a range of climates and urban form characteristics. As observations for most water fluxes are unavailable, we examine the water balance closure, flux timing, and magnitude with a score derived from seven indicators expecting better scoring models to capture the latent heat flux more accurately. We find that the water budget is only closed in 57% of the model‐site combinations assuming closure when annual total incoming fluxes (precipitation and irrigation) fluxes are within 3% of the outgoing (all other) fluxes. Results show the timing is better captured than magnitude. No ULSM has passed all water balance indicators for any site. Models passing more indicators do not capture the latent heat flux more accurately refuting our hypothesis. While output reporting inconsistencies may have negatively affected model performance, our results indicate models could be improved by explicitly verifying water balance closure and revising runoff parameterizations. By expanding ULSM evaluation to the water balance and related to latent heat flux performance, we demonstrate the benefits of evaluating processes with direct feedback mechanisms to the processes of interest.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Published
2024-09-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024ms004231
Citations
21
Primary Topic
Urban Heat Island Mitigation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.32

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article

The Water Balance Representation in Urban‐PLUMBER Land Surface Models

Yuqi Huang, Chenghao Wang, Sue Grimmond, Adriaan J. Teuling et al.
21 citations
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Urban Heat Island Mitigation
4.32
article

The Water Balance Representation in Urban‐PLUMBER Land Surface Models

Yuqi Huang, Chenghao Wang, Sue Grimmond, Adriaan J. Teuling, Zhi‐Hua Wang, Joe McNorton, Martin G. De Kauwe, Gert‐Jan Steeneveld, Naika Meili, Krzysztof Fortuniak, Martin Best, Harro Jongen, Mathew Lipson, Matthias Demuzere, Seung‐Bu Park, Ting Sun, Keith W. Oleson, Aristofanis Tsiringakis, Jong‐Jin Baik, Ruidong Li, Mikhail Varentsov
article en
21 citations

Abstract

Abstract Urban Land Surface Models (ULSMs) simulate energy and water exchanges between the urban surface and atmosphere. However, earlier systematic ULSM comparison projects assessed the energy balance but ignored the water balance, which is coupled to the energy balance. Here, we analyze the water balance representation in 19 ULSMs participating in the Urban‐PLUMBER project using results for 20 sites spread across a range of climates and urban form characteristics. As observations for most water fluxes are unavailable, we examine the water balance closure, flux timing, and magnitude with a score derived from seven indicators expecting better scoring models to capture the latent heat flux more accurately. We find that the water budget is only closed in 57% of the model‐site combinations assuming closure when annual total incoming fluxes (precipitation and irrigation) fluxes are within 3% of the outgoing (all other) fluxes. Results show the timing is better captured than magnitude. No ULSM has passed all water balance indicators for any site. Models passing more indicators do not capture the latent heat flux more accurately refuting our hypothesis. While output reporting inconsistencies may have negatively affected model performance, our results indicate models could be improved by explicitly verifying water balance closure and revising runoff parameterizations. By expanding ULSM evaluation to the water balance and related to latent heat flux performance, we demonstrate the benefits of evaluating processes with direct feedback mechanisms to the processes of interest.

Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth SystemsVol. 16(10)
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), University of Seoul (KR), Bureau of Meteorology (AU), Met Office (GB), U.S. National Science Foundation (US), Seoul National University (KR), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (GB), National University of Singapore (SG), Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU), University of Łódź (PL), University of Bristol (GB), Systemic Risk Centre (GB), Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology (RU), University College London (GB), Arizona State University (US), University of Reading (GB), University of Oklahoma (US), Ruhr University Bochum (DE), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Tsinghua University (CN)
National Science Foundation, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Computational Infrastructure, UK Research and Innovation, Sight Research UK, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Nuclear Energy, Natural Environment Research Council, European Research Council, Australian Research Council, Chinese Government Scholarship
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Urban Heat Island Mitigation
4.32
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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