Project Engaged in
Global urbanization footprints and the Urban Rainfall Effect Climatologies
Research Motivation:
It is not uncommon that in the process of urban expansion, big and
small cities coalesce to form continuous urban landscape that impact regional climate. These expansive urban landscapes are also referred to as Urban Climate Archipelagoes (UCAs) by Shepherd et al. (2013) who argued that a new line of research is required to understand how UCAs impact the climate system. Studies have been done on individual cities for urban heat island intensity (UHII) (Stewart 2011, Debbage and Shepherd 2015) and precipitation variability (Mitra and Shepherd 2016) but limited analyses have been conducted on the aggregate influence of UCAs. Additionally, virtually no urban rainfall studies have been conducted in South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa according to Liu and Niyogi (2019). The emergence of long term satellite rainfall data from TRMM and GPM enable studies in these locations that have traditionally lacked robust precipitation measurement capabilities. There are multiple research objectives articulated in this element that are specifically designed to improve our understanding of the URE in these understudied areas by leveraging remote sensing technologies and the UCA framework.
