Berkay Dönmez
Kutay Dönmez
Deniz Diren Üstün
Yurdanur Ünal
Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey
Urbanization has been demonstrated to alter precipitation characteristics. However, there is a lack of modeling-based examination of the interaction between urbanization and precipitation in Turkey. Here, we analyze the urban impacts on two precipitation events with different synoptic backgrounds in Ankara using the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The rainfall occurrences were selected considering the urban heat island (UHI) intensity over the urbanized area. We conceptualize urban and nourban configurations using the CORINE land cover data and create ensemble simulations. Our findings underline the dissimilarity in the urban impacts on the precipitation pattern of the selected events. The urban scenario suppressed the rainfall over the downwind and upwind of the urban center by more than 10 mm for the summertime event, reshaping the rainfall pattern to be more spatially distributed and protracting the rainfall duration. By contrast, the urban impact on the springtime event is less discernible, with less than 1% change in the rainfall amounts over the urban center. Strong synoptic forcing and significantly less UHI magnitude for the springtime event are responsible for the masked urban impacts on precipitation. Regardless, the urban land use changed the surface energy balance, reducing the moisture content over the highly urbanized area.
Urbanization impact, Urban heat island intensity, Heavy precipitation, Land use change, WRF model, Ankara
- Urbanization suppressed the summer rainfall downwind and upwind of the urban center and boosted in the urban center.
- Strong synoptic forcing and lower UHI magnitude for the spring event masked discernible urban impact on precipitation.
- The nourban configuration reshaped the rainfall pattern making it more spatially concentrated.
- The urban scenario prolonged the rainfall over the urbanized area during the summer event.
- All Figures except Figure1 (QGIS is used)
- We have shared the link to our code in the Appendix section of our manuscript. Data will be made available upon request (except the station observation data).