Urban Transition and Its Impact on Mesoscale Weather

Abstract

Urban transition is an unstoppable process. Globally, several planning measures are taken by the city and country administration to control the sprawling process. Despite all the planning, most of the cities experience appreciable impact of urbanization on the localized weather parameters. This chapter summarizes the understanding relating to urban modification of localized weather, that is, changes in precipitation, temperature, and wind speed in the form of increase or decrease, their spatio-temportal distribution, urban heat island (UHI), and urban wind island (UWI). The impacts of the urbanization are primarily because of changes in land-surface characteristics due to the alteration of land use in a city. The urbanization effects on local or mesoscale weather could be studied both through observations and/or numerical modeling. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of most of the relevant studies carried out globally and with a special emphasis on India.