Urbanization can have profound impacts on the hydrologic cycle. These changes include increases in the amount of and speed at which water runs off the land surface and into storm drains and river systems and a decline in the amount of water that soaks into the soil. These changes, as well as others, can have major implications for urban ecosystems and human well-being. Questions abound regarding how these changes, in conjunction with the impacts of climate change, will change cities in the near future. Myself and colleagues at Princeton University have been working to quantify these impacts, particularly with respect to changes in flood hazards and how they are linked to changes in land use and river networks in urban areas.
Urban areas can influence rainfall in several ways. Examples include the reduction in atmospheric stability due to hot air rising off of streets and buildings and complex interactions between the tiny particles emitted from cars tailpipes and from factories with microscopic cloud water droplets, the predecessors to raindrops. I am attempting to understand the extent to which rainfall is altered. The next steps include understanding which physical processes dominate and determining the extent to which urban rainfall modification can influence urban floods and droughts.
For more information, you can contact me or check the following papers:
- Wright, D.B., J.A. Smith, G. Villarini, M.L. Baeck. “Hydroclimatology of flash flooding in Atlanta,” Water Resources Research, 48, W0524, 2012.
- Smith, B.K, J.A. Smith, M.L. Baeck, G. Villarini, D.B. Wright, “The Spectrum of Storm Event Hydrologic Response in Urban Watersheds,” Water Resources Research, 49(2649-2663), 2013.
- Yang, L., J.A. Smith, D.B. Wright, M.L. Baeck, G. Villarini, F. Tian, H. Hu. “Urbanization and Climate Change: An Examination of Nonstationarities in Urban Flooding,” Journal of Hydrometeorology, 14(1791-1809), 2013.
- Wright, D.B., J.A. Smith, G. Villarini, M.L. Baeck. “Long-term high-resolution radar rainfall fields for urban hydrology,” Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 50(3:713-734), 2014.