SuPy and SUEWS urban land surface modelling: new developments and capabilities

Abstract

<p>Accurate and agile modelling of weather, climate, hydrology and air quality in cities is essential for delivering integrated urban services. SUEWS (Surface Urban Energy and Water balance Scheme) allows simulation of urban–atmospheric interactions by quantifying the energy, water and carbon fluxes.  SuPy (SUEWS in Python) provides the SUEWS computation kernel, a Python-based data stack that streamlines pre-processing, computation and post-processing to facilitate common urban climate modelling. This paper documents the recent developments in both SuPy and SUEWS, and the background principles of their interface, F2PY (Fortran to Python) configuration and Python front-end implementation. SuPy is deployed via PyPI (Python Package Index) allowing an automated workflow for cross-platform compilation on all mainstream operating systems (Windows, Linux and macOS). The online tutorials, using Jupyter Notebooks, allow users to become familiar with SuPy. A brief overview of other complementary SUEWS developments will be given, and include within canopy layer profiles of temperature, humidity, wind, and radiation that are supporting a wide range of applications; and database developments for obtaining model parameters.</p>