Impact of inland-water area changes to local climate and thermal environment of Wuhan city in China under hot weather conditions

Abstract

The problem of the urban heat island effect in China is becoming serious, especially in inland cities. The target area of this research is Wuhan city, which is in the geographical centre of China, with vast areas of inland water bodies. With urbanization, the water area decreased to one third of the original area from 1965 to 2008. The purpose of this research is to quantitatively assess the impact of this huge amount of inland water body reduction on the local climate and environment. In order to achieve this, three cases of 1965, 2008, and an ideal case without water area inside the built-up zone are studied, and the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is introduced as a simulation tool.