Strategies to mitigate urban heat: Effects on overheating and cloud formation

作者：John F. Mejía, Juan J. Henao, E. Scott Krayenhoff, Alberto Martilli, Andrea Zonato, Timothy Jiang · 发表于：Urban Climate · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.uclim.2025.102514 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Urban Heat Island Mitigation、Climate Change and Health Impacts、Wind and Air Flow Studies

This study assesses the effectiveness of various urban heat mitigation strategies and their broader impacts on cloud dynamics and thermal processes in the Houston-Galveston region. Using high-resolution simulations with the WRF model coupled with the BEP + BEM scheme and Local Climate Zones (LCZs), we modeled multiple interventions that are included in climate adaptation plans, including green roofs, solar panels, enhanced irrigation, cool roofs and roads, and urban street trees. We compared these scenarios to a current baseline, a no-city case, and a future urban expansion projection for 2045. Results indicate that during the day, cool roofs and roads, and green roofs are most effective at reducing surface air temperatures and heat index, while nighttime cooling is driven primarily by enhanced irrigation. These interventions also decrease daytime sensible heat flux, weakening urban-induced uplift and suppressing shallow cumulus cloud formation. Interestingly, reductions in urban cloudiness were more sensitive to declines in sensible heating than increases in latent heat, meaning even strategies with higher evapotranspiration still led to cloud suppression. Tree scenarios, especially the BEP-Tree model, which incorporates shading, wind drag, and stomatal conductance, showed minimal cooling or cloud impact in this moist climate. Net cooling effects were shaped by indirect atmospheric feedbacks: reduced cloud cover lowered downwelling longwave radiation, enhancing surface cooli...