About URB-RCC
The main aim of the Flagship Pilot Study (FPS) URBan environments and Regional Climate Change (URB-RCC) is to understand the effect of urban areas on the regional climate, as well as the impact of regional climate change on cities, with the help of coordinated experiments with urbanized regional climate models (RCMs).
While the urban climate with all the complex processes has been studied for decades, there is a significant gap to incorporate this knowledge into RCMs. This FPS aims to bridge this gap, leading the way to include urban parameterization schemes as a standard component in RCM simulations, especially at high resolutions. The results of URB-RCC aim to provide information for risk management to urban stakeholders, towards climate resilient cities.
URB-RCC aims to contribute to the Special IPCC Assessment Report planned for cities in AR7 Assessment cycle, WCRP Activities, and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) particularly on sustainable cities (#11), climate action (#13) and health (#3).
The FPS URB-RCC has been officially endorsed by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX).
Main objectives:
- Investigating interactions of urban environment with local-to-regional climate for (mega)cities based on coordinated ensemble using urbanized regional climate models (RCMs) in CORDEX experiments.
- Understanding and assessing urban climate change impacts, across local-to-regional scales.
- Assessing options for urban parameterization schemes in high-resolution RCM simulations for further use in CORDEX.
- Better understanding the urban environment’s vulnerability under climate change and providing the urban climate change science to underpin climate services for cities.
Project starting date: 01 May 2021
Expected lifetime: 5 years