RUI: Collaborative Research on Climate Modification Associated with Metropolitan Development

近年来对全球气候变化的研究主要集中在全球变暖、荒漠化、森林砍伐和相关的宏观环境变化上。虽然局部和区域气候变化一般都包括在这一主题中，但这种研究往往集中在城市峡谷的微观研究上。中尺度模式考虑空气的边界层和城市的整体变化。遥感技术、地理信息系统和能量平衡模型的最新进展使土地利用信息与遥感地表温度数据在适当分辨率尺度上的匹配成为可能，从而可以分析与沙漠都市发展相关的气候变化。本项目将利用地表温度、反射率、植被指数、热惯性和亚利桑那州凤凰城大都市区当前的土地利用情况，研究城市发展与气候变化之间的因果关系。遥感影像、气候记录、计算机模拟和实地工作将用于了解城市结构与近地表和边界层气候之间在不同空间尺度分辨率下的复杂关系。这项研究将通过分析同一空间尺度水平上不同来源的数据，改进现有的城市气候变化模型，从而更准确地评估人类活动对地表气候条件的影响。利用凤凰城地区作为设计和测试评估气候条件下土地利用变化方法的实验室，将对世界上极度敏感的干旱和半干旱地区具有重要的推广意义。

Recent research on global climate change has focused on global warming, desertification, deforestation and related macro- scale changes in the environment. While local and regional climatic modification has been included in this theme generally, such research has tended to concentrate on micro-scale studies of urban canyons. Meso-scale models consider the boundary layer of air and the city's overall modification of it. Recent advancements in remote sensing techniques, geographical information systems, and energy balance models permit the matching of land use information with remotely sensed surface temperature data at an appropriate scale of resolution so that climate modification associated with desert metropolitan development can be analyzed. This project will examine the causal links between urban development and climate modification using surface temperature, reflectivity, vegetation indices, thermal inertia, and current land use for the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Remotely sensed imagery, climatic records, computer modeling and field work will be used to understand the complex set of relationships between the urban fabric and near surface and boundary layer climate at varying resolutions of spatial scale. This research will improve upon existing models of urban climate modification by analyzing data from different sources at the same level of spatial scale, permitting more accurate assessment of the influence of human activity on climate conditions at the surface. The use of the Phoenix area as a laboratory to design and test methods for evaluating land use change on climate conditions will have important extensions to critically sensitive arid and semi-arid regions of the world.