Numerical Simulations of Impacts of Urbanization on Heavy Rainfall in Beijing Using Different Land-Use Data

A summer strong convective precipitation event on 10 July 2004 over Beijing is numerically simulated in this paper, and the impact of urban heat island (UHI) on summer convective rain is investigated. The analysis reveals that a mesoscale convective cloud cluster system leads to this heavy rainfall event, suggesting the supply of moisture by the large scale circulation before the initiation of precipitation, a generally weaker UHI of 2-3℃existed in the urban area. Much like a sea breeze, the anomalously warm urban air created relatively low pressure, inducing the inflow of cooler rural air towards the urban center, which is favorable to the ascending motion and the formation of convective precipitation over the urban area. In addition, the numerical simulation of the strong convective precipitation event suggests that the simulated result of precipitation using the 2002 LANDSAT-7 land-use data with 30-m resolution is much better than that using the 1992-1993 USGS land-use data with 1-km resolution, whether in the magnitude of rainfall or in the location of precipitation. The simulation confirms to some extent that the UHI has a significant role in causing extreme rainfall event.

Numerical Simulations of Impacts of Urbanization on Heavy Rainfall in Beijing Using Different Land-Use Data