Surface Runoff Discrepancy in Urban‐PLUMBER Land Surface Models
Abstract Enhanced surface runoff in urban environments reduces water availability and limits the evaporative cooling potential. We evaluate surface runoff in 18 urban land surface models (ULSM) in Urban‐PLUMBER for 6,570 rainfall events across 21 urban sites. Surface runoff occurs when rainfall exceeds the infiltration, saturation, or interception capacity. Ten models omit at least one of these processes, while seven fail to increase runoff with increasing imperviousness. Surprisingly, some models lack any runoff during intense (>) or prolonged (>20 mm) rainfall. Urban land surface models (ULSMs) turn 0%–86% rainfall into runoff. Most models produce runoff in agreement with an empirical comparison offered by the CN method, especially for high imperviousness. However, ULSM runoff exceeds CN runoff estimates for low impervious fraction, particularly by models with incomplete process description and for low‐intensity rainfall. The large discrepancy between ULSMs calls for advancing the urban hydrology representation in ULSMs, which is essential for correct simulation of evaporative cooling in cities.
Authors
- A. J. Teuling
- Chenghao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8846-4130)
- M. Demuzere
- Zhi‐Hua Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9155-8605)
- Naika Meili (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6283-2134)
- Harro Jongen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7538-4796)
- Mathew Lipson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5322-1796)
- K. Fortuniak
- Seung‐Bu Park (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4287-3160)
- Jong‐Jin Baik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-0532)
- Y. HUANG (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1021-2103)
- G. J. Steeneveld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5922-8179)
- M. De Kauwe
- M. Best (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4468-876X)
- S. Grimmond (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3166-9415)
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- University of Seoul (KR)
- Met Office (GB)
- Seoul National University (KR)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- University of Łódź (PL)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- GlobalFoundries (Singapore) (SG)
- Arizona State University (US)
- University of Reading (GB)
- University of Oklahoma (US)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2026-04-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gl122048
- Primary Topic
- Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Computational Infrastructure
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Government
- U.S. Geological Survey
- NASA Headquarters
- European Research Council
- Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions