Project Title: The impacts of global warming and urbanization on urban thermal environment

Project Type: Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Project Approval No. KZCX2-YW-BR-03

Project Awardee: Huang Shaopeng

Project Abstract: In the background of the global warming, the thermal environment in China has changed significantly over the recent decades. This change is further compounded by the ongoing urbanization in the country. Urbanization is unavoidably accompanied by land use and land cover changes that tend to increase the heat capacity of the boundary layer and suppress the cooling effect of soil moisture evaporation. Additionally, industrial and daily activities in cities generate a huge amount of anthropogenic waste heat. The consequence of urbanization is often a higher temperature in an urban area than in its surroundings, commonly termed as the urban heat island effect. This project is aimed at improving our understanding of the impacts of global climate change and the pace of urbanization on urban thermal environment through monitoring and modeling temperature changes across various environmental components including soils, rock, ground surface, and atmosphere. In the course of this project, special efforts will be made to promote interdisciplinary studies based on the inherent relationships among thermal and other physical, chemical, biological, and ecological processes. The ultimate objective of this project is to offer, from a thermal environmental point of view, scientific supports for a sustainable urban development.

Period of Project: 2008.1 – 2010.12

Fund of Project: 3,000,000 RMB