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Abstract
The concept of the urban roughness sublayer is discussed and this lowest atmospheric layer over a rough surface is
shown to have a non-negligible vertical extension over typical urban surfaces. The existing knowledge on the turbulence
and #ow structure within an urban roughness sublayer is reviewed, focusing on the height dependence of turbulent #uxes
and a scaling approach for turbulence statistics, such as velocity variances, in the above-roof part of the roughness
sublayer. Finally, the implication of this turbulence and #ow structure upon dispersion characteristics is investigated. The
most prominent di!erence of explicitly taking into account the roughness sublayer in a dispersion simulation (as
compared to assuming a &constant #ux layer') is a clearly enhanced ground level concentration far downwind from the
source. For the example of a tracer release experiment over a (sub) urban surface (Copenhagen) it is shown that
introducing the roughness sublayer clearly improves the model performance. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.
1352-2310/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 2 - 2 3 1 0 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 4 1 - 7
4002 M.W. Rotach / Atmospheric Environment 33 (1999) 4001}4008
2. The vertical extension of the Roughness Sublayer In Fig. 1 an attempt is made to display the various
layers over rough surfaces in a non-dimensional form, i.e.
From its de"nition, the roughness sublayer extends as a function of z/z (where z denotes the height of the
from the surface (z"0) up to a height z , at which the boundary layer) and z /h. The upper boundary of the
H
in#uence of individual roughness elements on the #ow inertial sublayer is chosen at z/z "0.1, therefore assum-
is &mixed up' by turbulence (Raupach et al., 1991), and ing that the argument of &double matching' is valid over
the #ow can be considered horizontally homogeneous if very rough surfaces too, i.e. the inertial sublayer is de-
the density, height and distribution of roughness ele- "ned as the region where simultaneously zz , with
ments do not vary over the upwind area of in#uence. The z the roughness length and zz is valid (see Tennekes
remaining part of the surface layer is usually termed and Lumley, 1972). For z an intermediate value of
H
inertial sublayer (IS). Note that the present de"nition of z "3h has been chosen (see Table 1 and the above
H
the RS is di!erent from that of Oke (1988) who has discussion for urban evidence). Note that any other as-
de"ned the lower boundary of the RS as the top of the sumption concerning z would simply move the corre-
H
urban canopy layer (UCL), i.e. roughly the average build- sponding line in Fig. 1 in the vertical direction or } if z is
H
ing height. Here, the more general concept of Oke et al. di!erent for plant canopies and urban type settlements
(1989) or Raupach et al. (1991) is adopted, in which the } give it another slope. The arrows denoted &city', &forest'
UCL is part of the RS. A number of criteria have been and &crop', respectively in Fig. 1 are based on typical
proposed in the literature to determine the height heights for the involved variables, for example z "
z (Table 1). These were derived from wind tunnel experi- 1000 m, h "20 m, h "10 m, h "1 m (or corre-
H
ments (obviously, deriving rules to describe z from full- spondingly). Taking the crop as an example, it can be
H
scale measurements would require an enormous number seen from Fig. 1 that the vertical extension of the rough-
of observational programs) and can be seen from Table 1 ness sublayer is only a few meters, whereas the inertial
to rely on the distribution and geometry of roughness sublayer ranges from 3 up to 100 m (for the example
M.W. Rotach / Atmospheric Environment 33 (1999) 4001}4008 4003
from the ZuK rich site, the measurements from Sapporo (1993b) and later by Oikawa and Meng (1995). In these
reveal a maximum of Reynolds stress (expressed as the two studies it was shown that not only a function of local
local friction velocity, u in Fig. 2) above roof level (at scaling variables can be derived to describe the data;
H
z/h"1.54 in this case) with the norm of momentum rather, the relationships that are appropriate for the
transport (&uw) decreasing when approaching the &sur- surface layer can be used as long as local #uxes (and
face'. Again, in this experiment the measuring tower was stability measures) are employed. Taking into account
e!ectively located 30 m downwind of the suburban sur- that the above-cited earlier studies usually worked with
face. The above simple analysis yields h +4 m for only one level of observations, their common conclusion
z>"0.45 m (Oikawa and Meng, 1995) thus indicating in favour of surface layer scaling may therefore also be
that even the lowest measurement level (5.4 m) is above regarded as supporting evidence for the concept of local
the internal boundary layer height and the pro"le dis- scaling for the roughness sublayer. Local scaling was
played in Fig. 2 re#ects the characteristics of the (upwind) found to apply for the velocity and temperature variance
suburban roughness sublayer. as well as the non-dimensional gradients of wind speed
In another recent investigation in the city of Basel and temperature and also the relationship between the
(CH), Reynolds stress was also observed to be varying Richardson number and z/¸, where L is the Obukhov
with height with increasing Reynolds stress (norm) be- length. It is noteworthy that for the scaled vertical
tween the lowest two levels at z/h+1.6 and z/h+2.3, velocity variance, there seems to be a tendency for an
respectively, for most of the stability classes (Feigenwin- enhanced mechanical contribution as compared to the
ter et al., 1999). These observations were carried out in surface layer results, thus leading to systematically di!er-
the central part of the city and thus seem to con"rm the ent constants in the similarity relation (Rotach, 1993b;
"ndings from the ZuK rich study (even if the uppermost Roth, 1993).
level (z/h+3.5) might have su!ered from a distinctly Some other, more subtle aspects of RS turbulence,
di!erent source area than the two lower ones). such as the ratio between the correlation coe$cient of
Evidence for Reynolds stress varying with height in sensible heat and that for momentum and thus the rela-
a wind tunnel study, in which an urban surface was tive transport e$ciencies are not well represented by the
simulated, is given by Rafailidis (1997). In this study it is Monin}Obukhov similarity relations, but nevertheless
shown that Ruw/Rz in the vicinity of roof level is parti- the sparse available data indicates that the concept of
cularly dependent on the geometry of the roofs, with local scaling provides a useful approach to describe these
much larger vertical variability for slanted roofs than for turbulence characteristics (Roth and Oke, 1995).
#at ones. It must be noted that local scaling is only applicable
Although these studies all seem to con"rm the "nding in the upper part of the urban roughness sublayer,
that Reynolds stress increases with height in an urban i.e. roughly above roof level (nevertheless, Oikawa
RS, Fig. 2 that combines the results from Oikawa and and Meng (1995) reported good correspondence to
Meng (1995) and Rotach (1993a), shows that a possible Monin}Obukhov predictions at z/h"0.77). Closer
parametrization for the vertical characteristics of to the surface average vertical pro"les (scaled by, e.g., the
Reynolds stress will have to include (at least) some in- friction velocity from the inertial sublayer) as suggested
formation on the urban morphology. In addition, much by Rotach (1995) may prove to be useful.
work needs to be done on the vertical structure of other
important turbulence statistics such as sensible or latent 3.3. Mean yow
heat #ux for a consistent determination of (local, see
below) stability measures within the RS. Throughout the urban roughness sublayer the pro"le
of mean wind speed has a similar form as that in rough-
ness sublayers over vegetated surfaces. Wind speed varies
3.2. Variances and non-dimensional gradients only marginally within the lower part of the canopy, then
rapidly increases close to the roof level and further in-
In a number of earlier studies the turbulence character- creases above. However, unlike over vegetated surfaces,
istics in the lower urban boundary layer (mostly velocity the shape of the wind speed pro"le is very much depen-
variances) were found to only marginally deviate from dent on the direction of the approaching #ow relative to
the predictions of Monin}Obukhov similarity theory the dominant street canyon axis (Rotach, 1995). Above
(e.g., Bowne and Ball, 1970; Brook, 1972; Clarke et al., roof level, the local scaling concept can be used to show
1982; Steyn, 1982). HoK gstroK m et al. (1982) were the "rst to that the (observed and modelled) mean velocity gradient
recognize a possible height dependence of turbulent is smaller than what would be predicted by a constant
#uxes and therefore suggested a concept of local scaling #ux assumption, in which the friction velocity from the IS
for other turbulence statistics. Further evidence for the is employed as a scaling velocity. This is demonstrated in
requirement (and success) of the local scaling approach Fig. 3, where measured average wind speed pro"les from
within the roughness sublayer was presented by Rotach the ZuK rich site are compared to those obtained from
M.W. Rotach / Atmospheric Environment 33 (1999) 4001}4008 4005
Fig. 4. Crosswind integrated ground level concentrations, CW as Fig. 5. Vertical plume spread for one of the experiments (Octo-
observed in the Copenhagen tracer experiment and predicted by ber 19, 1978) during the Copenhagen tracer releases as a func-
a two-dimensional Lagrangian stochastic dispersion model. (*) tion of distance from the source. (solid line) &urban' simulation
no roughness sublayer present in the simulation (&non-urban' (see caption of Fig. 4), (dashed line) &non-urban' simulation
simulation), (*) simulation includes the turbulence structure of (dotted line) Pasquill class C after Hanna (1982) or Boubel et al.
the roughness sublayer (&urban' simulation). (1994) recommended for urban conditions.
measures for model performance are better for the &ur- operational dispersion models for the Copenhagen data
ban' simulations. Although the improvement is only mi- set as mentioned above. However, a systematic variation
nor due to the relatively large source height, the fact that of surface characteristics (average building height and
the mean bias is reduced (now close to zero, see Rotach density, height of the RS,...) will be necessary in order to
and de Haan, 1997) while at the same time the scatter (as derive explicit &urban' parameterizations for, e.g., p or
X
measured through the normalized mean square error) is p which are appropriate for speci"c city structures
W
diminishing, shows that the improved performance of the and/or stability regimes.
&urban' simulation is not the result of mere &tuning'.
Rather, the improved representation of the physical
properties of the #ow close to the surface is responsible 5. Summary and conclusions
for this result and this is likely to increase the credibility
of dispersion simulations over urban surfaces. In this contribution the (still sparse) knowledge on the
Having shown the superiority of the &urban' simula- turbulence structure within the urban roughness sub-
tions for one single tracer experiment and anticipating layer from full scale observations is reviewed. The aver-
that similar results will be obtained when performing age turbulence structure of the urban roughness sublayer
similar comparisons using tracer data from other urban can best be characterized through the non-uniformity of
experiments, the results from the Lagrangian particle turbulent #uxes with height. Accordingly, traditional sur-
model may be used to derive parameterizations for &ur- face layer scaling cannot be appropriate in this region. It
ban' plume parameters such as the vertical and the hori- is argued that a speci"c form of local scaling, namely
zontal plume widths, p and p , respectively, which are a formulation that employs the known dimensionless
X W
required in simpler, operational dispersion models. As an functions from the surface layer, but in connection with
example Fig. 5 compares p for one of the Copenhagen the local #uxes, can successfully be used within the upper
X
tracer release experiments (experiment of Oct. 19, 1978, part of an urban roughness sublayer (i.e. in its above-roof
see Gryning and Lyck, 1984) from the &urban' and the region). Furthermore, the e!ect of including the turbu-
&non-urban' simulations. Clearly, the increase of p with lence structure of the roughness sublayer upon dispersion
X
distance from the source of both the &urban' and the of passive scalars is demonstrated using a two-dimen-
&non-urban' simulations is less pronounced than that sional Lagrangian stochastic dispersion model. It is
predicted by the appropriate Pasquill-type C curve for shown that maximum concentrations and the distance
urban conditions (Hanna, 1982; Boubel et al., 1994). This from the source of their occurrence are not severely
explains the partly severe underestimation of some of the altered by the presence of a roughness sublayer.
M.W. Rotach / Atmospheric Environment 33 (1999) 4001}4008 4007
However, for emissions at small heights above roof level, Garratt, J.R., 1978. Flux pro"le relations above tall vegetation.
the evolution of the concentration downwind of the max- Quarterly Journal of Royal Meteorological Society 104,
imum is signi"cantly a!ected. Bearing in mind that pollu- 199}211.
tant concentrations in urban environments often result Garratt, J.R., 1980. Surface in#uence upon vertical pro"les in the
from the sum of a large number of (relatively weak) atmospheric near surface layer. Quarterly Journal of Royal
Meteorological Society 106, 803}819.
sources, rather than being the result of emissions from
Gryning, S.-E., Lyck, E., 1984. Atmospheric dispersion
one large source, this indicates that it is important to
from elevated sources in an urban areas: Comparison be-
explicitly include the roughness sublayer in urban disper- tween tracer experiments and model calculations.
sion models in order to improve the quality of their Journal of Climatology and Applied Meteorology 23,
predictions. 651}660.
The above considerations have shown that over urban Hanna, S.R., 1982. Applications in modelling, In: Nieuwstadt,
surfaces the RS has a non-negligible vertical extension F.T.M., van Dop, H. (Eds.), Atmospheric Turbulence and Air
and } in connection with its modi"ed turbulence struc- Pollution. Reidel, Dorrecht, 358 pp.
ture as compared to the surface layer } also can signi"- HoK gstroK m, U., BergstroK m, H., Alexandersson, H., 1982. Turbu-
cantly a!ect the dispersion characteristics (among others) lence characteristics in a near-neutrally strati"ed
in such an environment. However, since the observa- urban atmosphere. Boundary-Layer Meteorology 23,
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tional evidence on the #ow and turbulence structure in
Kaimal, J.C., Finnigan, J.J., 1994. Atmospheric Boundary Layer
this layer is still sparse, more experimental and also
Flows. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 289 pp.
theoretical work will have to be done in this area. In Oikawa, S., Meng, Y., 1995. Turbulence characteristics and
particular, the question of the in#uence of urban mor- organized motion in a suburban roughness sublayer. Bound-
phology upon average pro"les of momentum #ux and ary-Layer Meteorology 74, 289}312.
that of probably also non-constant vertical pro"les of Oke, T.R., 1988. The urban energy balance. Progress in Physics
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Acknowledgements view of results. International Journal Environmental Pollu-
tion 5, 761}784.
The present work was partly "nanced by the Swiss Rafailidis, S., 1997. In#uence of building areal density and roof
Federal Department of Education and Sciences (BBW) shape on the wind characteristics above a town. Boundary-
and the Swiss Federal Department of Environment, For- Layer Meteorology 85, 255}271.
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Raupach, M.R., Thom, A.S., Edwards, I., 1980. A wind-tunnel
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