Urban irrigation reduces moist heat stress in Beijing, China

Although urban irrigation can modulate local hydrothermal conditions and mitigate urban heat island effects, its impact on moist heat stress (MHS) is poorly understood. Employing the Weather Research and Forecasting Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model (WRF-SLUCM), we evaluated the effect of urban irriga...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NPJ climate and atmospheric science 2024-02, Vol.7 (1), p.36-8, Article 36
Main Authors: Sun, Shuai, Zhang, Qiang, Shi, Chunxiang, Singh, Vijay P., Zhang, Tao, Gu, Junxia, Wang, Gang, Wu, Wenhuan, Chen, Donghui, Wu, Jianmei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/35/823
704/242
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Climatology
Cooling effects
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Heat stress
Heat tolerance
Irrigation
Relative humidity
Rural areas
Soil moisture
Soil temperature
Sustainable development
Temperature effects
Urban areas
Urban heat islands
Weather forecasting
Wind speed
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Summary:Although urban irrigation can modulate local hydrothermal conditions and mitigate urban heat island effects, its impact on moist heat stress (MHS) is poorly understood. Employing the Weather Research and Forecasting Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model (WRF-SLUCM), we evaluated the effect of urban irrigation on the MHS in Beijing, China, and found that the updated initial soil moisture (SM) field improved the simulation of temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. Besides, urban irrigation reduced urban and rural MHS, and particularly reduced afternoon and evening MHS by up to 1.2 °C but increased morning MHS by up to 0.4 °C. In addition, the effect of different irrigation times on MHS showed that irrigation at 02 and 20 h increased urban and rural MHS, with the best cooling effect at 00 and 13 h, which reduced the MHS by up to 2.65 °C in urban areas and 0.71 °C in rural areas. The findings highlighted mechanistically the effect of urban irrigation on MHS and shed light on how to mitigate urban heat island effects on urban sustainable development.
ISSN:2397-3722
2397-3722
DOI:10.1038/s41612-024-00585-6