Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
6.1 Simulated Climate Impacts of Future Urbanization
for the Great Beijing Area
In recent years, with the development of remote sensing technology, the studies of
the impacts of urbanization on regional climate has made a great progress by using
remote sensing technology to extract information on land use changes, land sur-
face temperature, and precipitation (Mitra et al.
2012
). These methods provided a
good support to describe the impacts of urbanization on surface climate rather than
the impact mechanism of urbanization on surface climate. Therefore, it is neces-
sary to introduce numerical simulation in investigating the key process that
urbanization affects regional climate change from the perspective of the mecha-
nism. Sensitivity experiments of two-dimensional scale model showed that sen-
sible heat fluxes caused by urban surface changes played a key role in climate
change, and roughness changes affected the spatial heterogeneity of climate
change. Sensitivity test of RAMS/TEM coupled model indicated that UHL plays a
key role in inducing downwind convective systems (Rozoff et al.
2003
).
Metropolitan cities in China have shown the ''spread'' and ''aggressive''
expansion accompanied by regional urban development and megalopolis forma-
tion since the reform and opening up, resulting in increasing effects on climate
change (Tang et al.
2013
). Great Beijing area is the economic center of northern
China, and it plays a strategically important role in the political and economic
development of the whole China (Kuang et al.
2011
). Therefore, the primary
objectives of this study are (i) to analyze the relationship between urbanization and
climate in the Great Beijing area during 1995-2005 and (ii) to identify the impact
of urbanization on temperature and precipitation in summer based on scenario-
based simulaiton results during 2030-2040.
6.1.1 Data and Methodology
6.1.1.1 Study Area
The Great Beijing area is located in North China Plain between 3825
0
-415
0
N,
11525
0
-11925
0
E. It covers Beijing Municipality and Tianjin Municipality and
the cities of Tangshan, Langfang, and Qinhuangdao (TLQ) of Hebei Province,
with a total area of 55,000 km
2
and a resident population of 29,368,600. Most of
the area is plain and the hilly area is only 1.98 km
2
. The area belongs to the
continental monsoon climate. The average annual temperature is from 10 to 12 C,
with the mean temperature of -1.9 C in January and 26.4 C in July. The average
annual precipitation is from 75 to 500 mm with an uneven time distribution, which
mainly occurs during summer with 72 % of the total annual rainfall.
Great Beijing area is defined as the political, cultural, and economic center of
China. The Eleventh National Five-Year Plan concluded development of this region.
