• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2010

The Urban Canopy Model (UCM) implemented in WRF model is applied to improve urban meteorological forecast for fine-scale (about 1-km horizontal grid spacing) simulations over the city of Seoul. The results of the surface air temperature and wind speed predicted by WRF-UCM model is compared with those of the standard WRF model. The 2-m air temperature and wind speed of the standard WRF are found to be lower than observation, while the nocturnal urban canopy temperature from the WRF-UCM is superior to the surface air temperature from the standard WRF. Although urban canopy temperature (TC) is found to be lower at industrial sites, TC in high-intensity residential areas compares better with surface observation than 2-m temperature. 10-m wind speed is overestimated in urban area, while urban canopy wind (UC) is weaker than observation by the drag effect of the building. The coupled WRF-UCM represents the increase of urban heat from urban effects such as anthropogenic heat and buildings, etc. The study indicates that the WRF-UCM contributes for the improvement of urban weather forecast such nocturnal heat island, especially when an accurate urban information dataset is provided.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.295-309
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• 2021

Diurnal variations of air temperature and relative humidity in the Urban Canopy Layer (UCL) of the Seoul metropolitan area are examined using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with the Seoul National University Urban Canopy Model. The canopy layer air temperature is higher than 2-m air temperature and exhibits a more rapid rise and an earlier peak in the daytime. These result from the multiple reflections of shortwave radiation and longwave radiation trapping due to the urban geometry. Because of the absence of vegetation in the UCL and the higher canopy layer air temperature, the canopy layer relative humidity is lower than 2-m relative humidity. Additional simulations with building height changes are conducted to examine the sensitivities of the canopy layer meteorological variables to the urban canyon aspect ratio. As the aspect ratio increases, net sensible heat flux entering the UCL increases (decreases) in the daytime (nighttime). However, the increase in the volume of the UCL reduces the magnitude of change rate of the canopy layer air temperature. As a result, the canopy layer air temperature generally decreases in the daytime and increases in the nighttime as the aspect ratio increases. The changes in the canopy layer relative humidity due to the aspect ratio change are largely determined by the canopy layer air temperature. As the aspect ratio increases, the canopy layer relative humidity is generally increased in the daytime and decreased in the nighttime, contrary to the canopy layer air temperature.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.141-158
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• 2016

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of urban canopy and the horizontal resolution on simulated meteorological variables such as 10-m wind speed, 2-m temperature and precipitation using WRF model for a local, convective rainfall case. We performed four sensitivity tests by varying the use of urban canopy model (UCM) and the horizontal resolution, then compared the model results with observations of AWS network. The focus of our study is over the Seoul metropolitan area for a convective rainfall that occurred on 16 August 16 2015. The analysis shows that mean diurnal variation of temperature is better simulated by the model runs with UCM before the convective rainfall. However, after rainfall, model shows significant difference in air temperature among sensitivity tests depending on the simulated rainfall amount. The rainfall amount is significantly underestimated in 0.5 km resolution model run compared to 1.5 km resolution, particularly over the urban areas. This is due to earlier occurrence of light rainfall in 0.5 km resolution model. Earlier light rainfall in the afternoon eliminates convective instability significantly, which prevents occurrence of rainfall later in the evening. The use of UCM results in a higher maximum rainfall in the domain, which is due to higher temperature in model runs with urban canopy. Earlier occurrence of rainfall in 0.5 km resolution model is related to rapid growth of PBL. Enhanced mixing and higher temperature result in rapid growth of PBL, which provides more favorable conditions for convection in the 0.5 km resolution run with urban canopy. All sensitivity tests show dry bias, which also contributes to the occurrence of light precipitation throughout the simulation period.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.65-77
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• 2015

The urban park has important functions as a habitat for wildlife as well as open space of rest and community for people. This study was carried out to find what factors of structure and vegetation of urban parks could affect forest bird species diversity in Cheonan city. The study surveyed bird and vegetation species in 26 urban parks, Cheonan city. A correlation analysis and multiple linear regressions were performed to test whether habitat structure and vegetation were the major correlate with species diversity. The results showed the Dujeong park was the most high bird species diversity (H' = 2.13), and the Dujeong-8 park (H' = 2.02) and the Cheongsa park (H' = 1.73) were considerably higher than the other urban parks. The variables that were strongly correlated with bird species diversity were park area, number of subtree species, canopy of shrub, number of shrub species, shape index, canopy of subtree, canopy of tree, and impervious surface ratio. The regression of bird species diversity against the environmental variables showed that 3 variables of park area, canopy of subtree, and canopy of tree were included in the best model. Model variable selection was broadly similar for the 5 optimal models. It means park area and multi-layer vegetation were the most consistent and significant predictor of bird species diversity, because urban parks were isolated by built-up areas. Especially the subtree coverage that provides shelter and food for forest birds was an important variable. Therefore, to make parks circular-shaped and abundant multi-layer vegetation, which could be a buffer to external disturbances and improve the quality of habitats, may be used to enhance species diversity in creation and management of urban parks.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2923-2928
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• 2007

The study of model for velocity and turbulence within the urban canopy was carried out. To evaluate existing urban model we conducted wind tunnel experiment and large-eddy simulation (LES). Mean velocity profile and turbulence are measured within simple three different obstacle arrays. To obtain supplemental data and to verify morphological model large-eddy simulation was performed. Several methods have been used to achieve embodying the flow field in urban area. Recently, morphological method obtaining flow parameters from the statistical or physical representation of obstacle elements is a arising method. It was found that all morphological model, evaluated in this study, over predict the friction velocity, most sensitive one among the flow parameters. Velocity and turbulence in the urban canopy layer were improved by the correction using 'true' friction velocity.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.417-427
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to build urban canopy model (Met Office Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme, MORUSES) based to Unified Model (UM) by using urban building information data in Seoul, and then to compare the improving urban canopy model simulation result with that of Seoul Automatic Weather Station (AWS) observation site data. UM-MORUSES is based on building information database in London, we performed a sensitivity experiment of UM-MOURSES model using urban building information database in Seoul. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of 1.5 km resolution Seoul building data is applied instead of London building information data. Frontal-area index and planar-area index of Seoul are used to calculate building height. The height of the highest building in Seoul is 40m, showing high in Yeoido-gu, Gangnam-gu and Jamsil-gu areas. The street aspect ratio is high in Gangnam-gu, and the repetition rate of buildings is lower in Eunpyeong-gu and Gangbuk-gu. UM-MORUSES model is improved to consider the building geometry parameter in Seoul. It is noticed that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of wind speed is decreases from 0.8 to 0.6 m s^-1 by 25 number AWS in Seoul. The surface air temperature forecast tends to underestimate in pre-improvement model, while it is improved at night time by UM-MORUSES model. This study shows that the post-improvement UM-MORUSES model can provide detailed Seoul building information data and accurate surface air temperature and wind speed in urban region.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2012

Recently rapid urbanization facilitates development of high-rise building complex including apartment and office building in urban area. Many problems related with high -rise building are reported. Especially, unpleasant strong winds in pedestrian area are frequently encountered around the high-rise building. CFD simulation methods are used to analyze the wind environment of pedestrian level in high-rise building block. However, the results show differences between CFD and measurement. This difference is attributed to improper use of CFD. Conventional CFD simulation for wind environment around high-rise building does not describe the effect of trees, shrubs and plants near ground which affect the wind environment of pedestrian level. Canopy model can be used to reproduce the aerodynamic effects of trees, shrubs and plants near ground. In this paper, CFD simulation methods coupled with the tree canopy model to predict wind environment of pedestrian level in high-rise residential building block were suggested and the validity was analyzed by comparison between measurement and CFD results.

• Atmosphere
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.483-498
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• 2017

Sky view factor can quantify the influence of complex obstructions. This study aims to evaluate the best available SVF method that represents an urban thermal condition with land cover in complex city of Korea and also to quantify a correlation between SVF and mean air temperature; the results are as follows. First, three SVF methods comparison result shows that urban thermal study should consider forest canopy induced effects because the forest canopy test (on/off) on SVF reveals significant difference range (0.8, between maximum value and minimum value) in comparison with the range (0.1~0.3) of SVFs (Fisheye, SOLWEIG and 3DPC) difference. The significance is bigger as a forest cover proportion become larger. Second, R-square between SVF methods and urban local mean air temperature seems more reliable at night than a day. And as the value of SVF increased, it showed a positive slope in summer day and a negative slope in winter night. In the SVF calculation method, Fisheye SVF, which is the observed value, is close to the 3DPC SVF, but the grid-based SWG SVF is higher in correlation with the temperature. However, both urban climate monitoring and model/analysis study need more development because of the different between SVF and mean air temperature correlation results in the summer night period, which imply other major factors such as cooling air by the forest canopy, warming air by anthropogenic heat emitted from fuel oil combustion and so forth.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.429-436
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• 2012

The performances of the Seoul National University Urban Canopy Model (SNUUCM) under different meteorological conditions (clear, cloudy, and rainy conditions) in summertime are compared using observation dataset obtained at an urban site. The daily-averaged net radiation, sensible heat flux, and storage heat flux are largest in clear days and smallest in rainy days, but the daily-averaged latent heat flux is similar among clear, cloudy, and rainy days. That is, the ratio of latent heat flux to net radiation increases in order of clear, cloudy, and rainy conditions. In general, the performance of the SNUUCM is better in clear days than in cloudy or rainy days. However, the performance in simulating sensible heat flux in clear days is as poor as that in rainy days. For all the meteorological conditions, the performance in simulating latent heat flux is worst among the performances in simulating net radiation, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux. The normalized mean error for latent heat flux is largest in rainy days in which the relative importance of latent heat flux in the surface energy balance becomes greatest among the three conditions. This study suggests that improvements to the parameterization of processes that are related to latent heat flux are particularly needed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.137-150
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• 2010

A meso-urban meteorological model (Urbanized MM5; uMM5) with urban canopy parameterization (UCP) was applied to the high-resolution simulation of meteorological fields in a complex coastal urban area and the assessment of urban impacts. Multi-scale simulations with the uMM5 in the innermost domain (1-km resolution) covering the Busan metropolitan region were performed during a typical sea breeze episode (4~8 August 2006) with detailed fine-resolution inputs (urban morphology, land-use/land-cover sub-grid distribution, and high-quality digital elevation model data sets). An additional simulation using the standard MM5 was also conducted to identify the effects of urban surface properties under urban meteorological conditions. Results showed that the uMM5 reproduced well the urban thermal and dynamic environment and captured well the observed feature of sea breeze. When comparison with simulations of the standard MM5, it was found that the uMM5 better reproduced urban impacts on temperature (especially at nighttime) and urban wind flows: roughness-induced deceleration and UHI (Urban Heat Island)-induced convergence.