Collaborative Research: PREEVENTS Track 2: Land-atmosphere feedbacks over urban terrain under heat waves

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Heat waves are one of the most important causes of weather-related mortality and could lead to unprecedented peak electricity demand. While heat waves are usually instigated by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, land-atmosphere feedbacks can further amplify their local magnitudes. However, investigations of land-atmosphere feedbacks over urban areas under heat waves are lacking, despite urban areas being home for over 50% of the global population and 80% of the US population. This project aims to advance the understanding of land-atmosphere feedbacks over urban areas under heat waves and the prediction of local heat wave impacts on natural systems and human activities in urban areas. This project will provide the scientific basis and tools for policy makers to design heat mitigation strategies over the Boston region by engaging policy makers through scientific briefings, workshops and outreach activities. Beyond the tutoring of one graduate student and two postdoctoral researchers, the project will provide summer research opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in interdisciplinary research tackling real urban sustainability challenges. The simulations and analyses generated by this project will be incorporated into various undergraduate and graduate courses that the PIs teach.In particular, this project focuses on the coupled dynamics and feedbacks between the natural (e.g., vegetation) and built (e.g., buildings) components of the urban environment and the local meteorological conditions under heat waves, and their representations in numerical weather prediction models. New understanding generated by analysis of existing sap flux measurements will be incorporated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to better predict urban evapotranspiration under heat wave conditions. The response of building energy use to heat wave conditions and how the feedback of anthropogenic heat flux further modulates the local meteorological conditions will be also quantified in an iterative manner using WRF and a city scale building energy use model.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.