U-Surf: A Global 1km spatially continuous urban surface property dataset for kilometer-scale urban-resolving Earth system modeling (original) (raw)
Published July 9, 2024 | Version 1.0.0
Dataset Open
Authors/Creators
1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
2. Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
3. Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
4. Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
5. B-Kode VOF, Ghent, Belgium
6. Guangdong Key Laboratory for Urbanization and Geo-simulation, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
7. Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong, China
Description
High-resolution urban climate modeling has faced substantial challenges due to the absence of a globally consistent, spatially continuous, and accurate dataset to represent the spatial heterogeneity of urban surfaces and their biophysical properties. This deficiency has long obstructed the development of urban-resolving Earth System Models (ESMs) and ultra-high-resolution urban climate modeling, particularly at large scales. Here, we present a first-of-its-kind 1km-resolution present-day (circa-2020) global continuous urban surface parameter dataset – U-Surf. Using the urban canopy model (UCM) in the Community Earth System Model as a base model for developing dataset requirements, U-Surf leverages the latest advances in remote sensing, machine learning, and cloud computing to provide the most relevant urban surface biophysical parameters, including radiative, morphological, and thermal properties, for UCMs at the facet- and canopy-level. Our high-resolution U-Surf dataset significantly improves the representation of the urban land heterogeneity both within and across cities globally. U-Surf provides essential, high-fidelity surface biophysical constraints to urban-resolving ESMs, enables detailed city-to-city comparisons across the globe, and supports the next-generation kilometer-resolution Earth system modeling across scales. U-Surf parameters can be easily converted or adapted to various types of UCMs, such as those embedded in weather and regional climate models, as well as air quality models. The fundamental urban surface constraints provided by U-Surf are also relevant as features for machine learning models and can have other broad-scale applications for socioeconomic, public health, and urban planning contexts. We expect U-Surf to promote the research frontier on urban systems science, climate-sensitive urban design, and coupled human-Earth systems in the future.
The complete list of parameters is presented in the table below.
| Category | Parameter | Notes | | | | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | | | Radiative | Roof | Impervious | Pervious canyon floor | Wall emissivity | | | | Roof | Impervious | Pervious canyon floor | Wall albedo | | | | Morphological | Roof | Pervious fraction | Roof fraction is w.r.t. urban horizontal surface, and pervious fraction is w.r.t. canyon floor (i.e. pervious and impervious canyon floor). | | | | | Building height | Unit: m; Height of wind in the canyon is simply set as half of the building height in CLMU. | | | | | | Canyon height-to-width ratio | | | | | | | Urban percentage | | | | | | Thermal | Roof | Wall thickness | Unit: m | | | | | Roof | Impervious canyon floor | Wall thermal conductivity | Unit: W/m*K | | | | | Roof | Impervious canyon floor | Wall volumetric heat capacity | Unit: J/m^3*K | | | | | Number of impervious canyon floor layer | | | | | | | Minimum | Maximum interior building temperature | Unit: K | | | | | | Air conditioning adoption rate | | | | |
Radiative and morphological parameters are presented in the format of both .tif and .nc to accommodate different needs for the urban climate modeling community. Thermal parameters adapted from CLMU are available in a single .nc file. A CESM-compatiable surface dataset at standard resolution (0.9375°x1.25°) is included for direct simulation use. Note that the urban percentage used to create the surface dataset comes from the PCT_URBAN parameter calculated in U-Surf, but users can input their own urban extent data to generate a customized surface dataset. The raw 1-km data can be easily aggregated/regridded to other resolution as needed.
Files
CESM_1deg_surfdata.zip
Files (6.2 GB)