MODELING OF URBAN BOUNDARY LAYERS OVER TROPICAL AND

SUBTROPICAL REGIONS


by
H. A. KARAM and A. J. PEREIRA FILHO

Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences
University of So Paulo (IAG-USP)



Rua do Mato, 1226, Cidade Universitria,
So Paulo, SP, Brazil, 05508-090
E-mails: hakaram@model.iag.usp.br, apereira@model.iag.usp.br

Initial revision day: Thursday, July 01, 2004

Today: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Deadline COSPAR-2004 (to send to e-mail): 10 July 2004



ABSTRACT
A numerical model for urban boundary layers (UBL) over tropical and subtropical
environments is presented. The model is tested and analyzed for the Metropolitan Area of
So Paulo (MASP), So Paulo, Brazil, one of the largest cities in the world with a
population close to 17.5 million inhabitants. Limited urban planning and development have
increased the number of mood slides and flood prone areas. The main characteristics of the
MASP UBL are: (1) heterogeneous standards of construction for house, buildings and other
constructions; 2) short and long wave radiation partition strongly depended upon sloped
terrains, the geometry of buildings, materials and population density; (3) environmental
degradation specially at natural resources protected areas;(4) stronger thermal convection
and local circulation; (5) high concentrations of pollutants.
Topics: Representation of urban surfaces if tropical and subtropical cities in numerical
models of the atmosphere
Key words: Town energy budget model (TEB), atmospheric urban boundary layer UBL,
urban canyon, citys microclimates, surface boundary conditions, numerical modeling of
atmospheric boundary layer.

1. Introduction
1.1 The context of hydrometeorology in So Paulo metropolis
The Metropolitan Region of So Paulo (RMSP) is located in the geometric center of a
geological compartment on the uplands 50 km far away from the littoral of So Paulo State,
Brazil. The topographic altitude increases abruptly since the littoral plain to reach almost
1000 m fewer kilometers ahead in the continent due the presence of a real scarp called
Serra do Mar. The town center of the RMSP is located in the coordinates latitude 23
o
32
52 S and longitude 46
o
38 07 W (or in decimal degrees: 23.5477777
o
S;
46.63527777
o
W). The Capricorns Tropic crosses ~20 km northern of the town of the city.
Therefore, the urban area is placed at the border between the tropical climate (north ward)
and subtropical climate (south ward). The local weather is typical of a tropical one but
colder because it is a tropical of altitude climate, characterized by moderated mean air
temperature (~24
o
C) and the larger amount of precipitated water in summer (due
convective rains). The representative altitude of the RMSP is 860 m, over undulating
terrain with hills and valleys (200 m from top to bottom), mainly conditioned by the large
basin defined by the upstream Tiet river spring to Southeast of the urban area.

Figure 1 The region of the metropolitan So Paulo (RMSP) was mapped by the land-cover data
prepared by the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) (Belward, 1996), which is
available with a nominal resolution of 1 km x 1 km. The big area of the metropolis cover an area of
almost 50 x 50 km
2
showed in the above thematic map by red pixels. Note the two larger dams at
the southern of the RMSP, just bordering an area covered by a continuous covered rain forest
located in a government protected area along the scarped terrain of Serra do Mar mountain (at
southeast of the RMSP). In the left-down corner of this thematic map, the Atlantic Ocean is
indicated by the blue pixels, near the red ones those correspond to the area of the biggest Brazilian,
i.e., the Port of Santos city. The center of the picture map was chosen to coincide with the town
center of the RMSP (lat.: 23
o
32 52 S; long.: 46
o
38 07 W).

2. Methodology
2.1 Air temperature and humidity inside a 2D urban canyon numerical computation

The equation to the air temperature inside a 2-D urban canyon has been written by Masson
(2000) as follows:
h c
H
z
T
k
z x
T
k
x t
T
p a
traffic
z x
can

+ |

\
|

+ |

\
|

,
(1)
where T
can
is the absolute air temperature inside the canyon; k
x
and k
z
are, respectively, the
coefficient of heat diffusion to the transversal (crossroad) and vertical directions in the
canyon; T is the absolute air temperature being T(x,y,z,t), H
traffic
is the anthropogenic heat
flux released inside the canyon (considered 50 W m
2
every canyon), h is the canyon height
(m),
a
is the mean air density (~1 kg m
3
), and c
p
is the specific heat to constant pressure
of the air (~1005 J kg
1
K
1
). This equation assumes an anthropogenic heat flux is used only
to warm the air inside the canyon. In a similar way, we can write the equation for the
specific air humidity of the air inside the canyon, i.e.,
( )
h
E
z
q
k
z x
q
k
x t
q
a
traffic
z x
can

+ |

\
|

+ |

\
|

,
(2)
where q
can
is the air specific humidity in the canyon, (E)
traffic
is the anthropogenic flux of
water vapor released in the canyon (assumed equal to 50 W m
2
), and is the latent heat
coefficient (~2.510
6
J kg
1
). The numerical solution to the air temperature equation in the
urban canyon is exemplified ahead. The finite differences form of the air temperature
prognostic equation (centered in space and advance in time) is:
( ) ( )
h c
H
z
T
K
z
T
K
z
1
x
T
K
x
T
K
x
1
t
T T
p a
traffic
1
z
2
z
c 1
x
2
x
c
n
can
1 n
can

+
(

\
|

\
|

+
(

\
|

\
|

+
, (3)
where ( )
2 1 c
x x 5 , 0 x + = , ( )
2 1 c
z z 5 , 0 z + = , t is the time step of the numerical
integration, and
( ) ( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
[ ]
.
r
T T T 5 , 0 c
z
T
K
,
r
T T c
z
T
K
,
r
T T c
x
T
K
,
r
T T c
x
T
K
top
1 z
2 x
1 x
T
j n
can
n
1
n
a p a
2
z
T
n
3
j n
can p a
1
z
T
j n
can
n
2 p a
2
x
T
n
2
j n
can p a
1
x
+
+
+
+
+
= |

\
|

= |

\
|

= |

\
|

= |

\
|

(4)
with j = 0 or j = 1 for explicit and implicit solutions, respectively. After substitution and
simplification we define:
( )
( )
( )
h c
H
r
T
r
T T 5 , 0
z
1
r
1
r
1
x
T
c B
p a
n
traffic
n
Tz
3
Tz
1 a
c Tx Tx c
2
p a
1 2 1 2

+
(
(

|
|

\
|
+
+

+
|
|

\
|
+

(5)
and
( ) n
Tz Tz c Tx Tx c
p a
1 2 1 2
r
1
r
1
z
1
r
1
r
1
x
1
c C
(
(

|
|

\
|
+

+
|
|

\
|
+

,
(6)
which we have used to obtain the following numerical solutions:
(a) Steady solution:
C
B
T
can
= ;
(7)
(b) Explicit solution:
( ) ( )
( ) B t C t 1 T T
n
can
1 n
can
+ + =
+
;
(8)
(c) Implicit solution:
( )
( )
( ) C t 1
B t T
T
n
can 1 n
can

+
=
+
.
(9)
The advantage of the implicit numerical solution (c) is to be independent of the time step,
but steps not so long are indeed necessary to preserve the precision beyond the stability
requirement. In other hands, an explicit solution (b) requires relatively smaller time steps to
assured numerical stability. The steady solution (a) is the form applied in the TEB urban
surface model by Masson (2000). In the proposed model in this work we consider the
advantage of the implicit solution that used to become the model be able to represent the
transients a non-steady evolutions of both temperature and air humidity over the surface
boundary layer found in the urban canyon prototypes.

Figure 1 Distribution of temperatures on the surfaces of an urban canyon over a horizontal
terrain.

2.2 Effect of flat and sloped topography in the urban canyon configuration

2.3 Visible solar radiation fluxes

2.4 Infrared radiation fluxes
The matrix auxiliary in the evaluation of the full process of emission and reflection in the
involved surfaces of the urban canyon is:

2.5 Urban canyons and radiation interaction over flat and sloped topography

EMISSION /
REFLECTION
TARGET BODY
1 2 3 4 5

EMISSION
BODY
1 - 12 13 14 15
2 21 - 23 24 25
3 31 32 - 34 35
4 41 42 43 - 45
5 51 52 53 54 -
Table 1 Pairs of source/targets bodies involved in the infrared radiation interactions on the
urban canyons surfaces associated with emission (gray body), transmission, absorption and
reflection (of the target body) of thermal radiation. The associated surfaces are numbered:
(1) for roofs; (2) for the left vertical walls in the canyon; (3) streets and roads (base of the
canyons); (4) for the right opposite vertical wall of the canyon, and (5) for the air mass in
the urban canopy boundary layer just over or at the border of the canyon.

The meaning of the names presented in Figure 2 is described in Table 2.



(a) Infrared radiation fluxes on roof surfaces

(b) Infrared radiation fluxes on vertical wall surfaces

(c) Infrared radiation fluxes on street surfaces


Figure 2 Infrared radiation fluxes over (a) roofs, (b) vertical walls, and (c) streets surfaces
of a prototype of urban canyon settled on a horizontal and flat terrain. The meaning of the
names R1, R2, R3 etc are given in the text. These figures are the geometric representation
of the equations proposed by Masson (2000).

Name in Fig. 2 Meaning

Roofs:

R1 Incoming infrared radiation flux from atmosphere
R2 Lost of reflected incoming infrared flux in the roof surface to atmosphere
R3 Flux of infrared radiation emitted from surface to atmosphere

Walls:

W1 Direct incoming infrared radiation flux from atmosphere
W2 Lost of reflected incoming infrared flux in the wall surface to atmosphere
W3 Direct infrared radiation flux emitted from surface to atmosphere
W4 Incoming infrared radiation flux reflected in the opposite wall after to be emitted
from the wall
W5 Incoming infrared radiation flux reflected in the opposite wall after to be emitted
from the atmosphere (it can be associated with the thermal radiation emission by
the air in the canyon valley)
W6 Incoming infrared radiation flux reflected in the street after to be emitted from
the atmosphere
W7 Direct incoming thermal radiation flux emitted by the opposite wall
W8 Incoming infrared radiation flux reflected in the street after to be emitted by the
opposite wall
W9 Direct incoming thermal radiation flux emitted by the street
W10 Incoming infrared radiation flux reflected in the opposite wall after to be emitted
by the street

Streets:

S1 Direct incoming of infrared radiation flux from atmosphere
S2 Lost of reflected infrared radiation flux by the street surface to atmosphere
S3 Direct infrared radiation flux emitted from street surface to atmosphere
S4 Direct infrared radiation flux emitted from wall in direction to the street
S5 Incoming of infrared radiation flux reflected in the wall after to be emitted by the
atmosphere
S6 Incoming of infrared radiation flux reflected in the wall after to be emitted by the
opposite wall
Table 2 Components of the infrared radiation balance over the surfaces defining a
horizontally settled urban canyon.


2.6 Non-homogeneous fluid in the urban boundary layer effects of the water vapor
over the fluxes and buoyancy

2.7 Free convection over urban canyons

2.8 Water balance over urban canyons in sloped topographic terrain: the use of mass
conservation principle

3. Results and discussion

4. Conclusion
This work deals with a numerical model for urban surface for tropical and subtropical cities
in numerical models of atmosphere. A typical tropical metropolis is So Paulo City, SP,
Brazil, that presents a neighborhood area characterized by an uncompleted urbanization and
where the public services are limited in attend the needs of the population. The suburban
area of So Paulo city presents an occupation that is distinguished of the typical occupation
of the European cities because: (1) it occurs in risk areas, i.e., over inclined terrain or
potentially flooded areas on the borders of rivers; (2) the buildings are made with some
cheap row material mixed with traditional materials; (3) the distribution of short and long
wave radiation is conditioned by the inclination of the terrain, geometry of the buildings,
materials and population density; (4) the exclusion of many common living areas; (5)
intense or free thermal convection is found over the urban surface on the diurnal time with
impact in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer dynamics; (6) high levels of airborne pollutants
are found; etc. The proposed numerical scheme is designed to contribute with the current
tools used to forecast the impact of convective precipitations in the risk areas of So Paulo
City.
Acknowledgment The authors thank to the Brazilians support agencies FAPESP and
CNPQ that have granted their research works.
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