Urban effects on precipitation: Do the diversity of research strategies and urban characteristics preclude general conclusions?

Lalonde, Morgane; Oudin, Ludovic

doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2023.101605

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Predictive understanding of urban-induced rainfall anomalies, in terms of both their magnitudes and positions, remain challenging 6 . This is mainly due to the variant nature of cities, including size 7 , shape 8 , and geographical context (e.g., in the vicinity of land/water boundaries and complex terrain) 9 , 10 , as well as the intricate dependence of rainfall variability on synoptic forcings 11 , background climate 12 , 13 , and microphysical properties of urban aerosols 14 . In addition, cities vary in how urban elements such as buildings and roads are spatially organized in horizontal dimension, referred to as urban footprints.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban development pattern’s influence on extreme rainfall occurrences

Yang,

Shen

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Growing urban population and the distinct strategies to accommodate them lead to diverse urban development patterns worldwide. While local evidence suggests the presence of urban signatures in rainfall anomalies, there is limited understanding of how rainfall responds to divergent urban development patterns worldwide. Here we unveil a divergence in the exposure to extreme rainfall for 1790 inland cities globally, attributable to their respective urban development patterns. Cities that experience compact development tend to witness larger increases in extreme rainfall frequency over downtown than their rural surroundings, while the anomalies in extreme rainfall frequency diminish for cities with dispersed development. Convection-permitting simulations further suggest compact urban footprints lead to more pronounced urban-rural thermal contrasts and aerodynamic disturbances. This is directly responsible for the divergent rainfall responses to urban development patterns. Our analyses offer significant insights pertaining to the priorities and potential of city-level efforts to mitigate the emerging climate-related hazards, particularly for countries experiencing rapid urbanization.

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