Very High Resolution Urban Simulations with WRF/UCM and CMAQ over European Cities

Abstract

The results showed in this paper, are part of the activities into the FP7 EU project “Sustainable urban planning decision support accounting for urban metabolism (BRIDGE)”. It provides the means to close the gap between bio-physical sciences and urban planners and to illustrate the advantages of accounting for urban metabolism issues on a routine basis in design decisions. BRIDGE is focused on the following components of urban metabolism: Energy, water, carbon and pollutants. WRF and CMAQ models are used in very high spatial resolution (200 m) to analyze and study the impact of urban metabolism with different alternatives in urban planning scenarios over five European cities: Helsinki, Finland; Athens, Greece; London, United Kingdom; Firenze, Italy and Gliwice, Poland. An off-line linkage between WRF and CMAQ has been implemented through the MCIP interface processor. The high resolution datasets have been integrated in a Decision Support System (DSS). In general the model—when running with very high spatial resolution—produces good results although the quality in slightly reduced. Some numerical stability could be involved in the very high spatial resolution run.