%0 Journal Article
%T Modeling the Impacts of Urbanization on Regional Climate Change: A Case Study in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Metropolitan Area
%A Jinyan Zhan
%A Juan Huang
%A Tao Zhao
%A Xiaoli Geng
%A Yihui Xiong
%J Advances in Meteorology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/849479
%X China has experienced rapid urbanization since 1978, and the dramatic change in land cover is expected to have significant impacts on the climate change. Some models have been used to simulate the relationship between land use and land cover change and climate change; however, there is still no sufficient evidence for the impacts of urbanization on the regional climate. This study aims to identify the impact of urban land use change on regional temperature and precipitation in summer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Metropolitan area during 2030¨C2040 based on the analysis of the simulation results of WRF model. Firstly, we analyzed the land use change and climate change during 1995¨C2005 in the study area. The impacts of future urbanization on regional climate change were then simulated. The results indicate that urbanization in this area has affected the regional climate and has the potential to increase temperature and precipitation in the summer of 2030¨C2040. These research results can offer decision-making support information related to future planning strategies in urban environments in consideration of regional climate change. 1. Introduction More than 50% of the world¡¯s people live in cities, and the urban population is growing at a much faster rate than the Earth¡¯s population as a whole and by larger annual increments than ever before [1]. It is expected that 61% of the world¡¯s population will reside in urban settlements in 2030 [2], and China¡¯s current plan is to make the proportion of urban population reach 67% in 2030, shifting 280 million people to cities within two decades [3]. Some studies have shown that the population size of China will reach the peak around 2030¨C2040 and thereafter decline gradually, shifting from the low growth phase to a negative growth phase. The climate system involves the land surface, atmosphere, oceans and other water bodies, the cryosphere and the biosphere, and urbanization which is one of the most important human activities that influence the climate system [4]. Urban climates are warmer and more polluted than their rural counterparts [5]. These differences are partly due to the urban expansion, which usually removes and replaces crops and natural vegetation with nonevaporating and nontranspiring surfaces such as metal, asphalt and concrete [6]. There is generally low land surface albedo, vegetative cover, and moisture availability in urban areas. These factors, along with the presence of high levels of anthropogenic heating, are associated with the phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI), which
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/amete/2013/849479/