HR: 09:50h
AN: A41B-11    [Abstracts]
TI: Impact of anthropogenic land-use/land-cover change on climate & hydrologic cycle of a semi-arid region
AU: * Georgescu, M
EM: matt1@cep.rutgers.edu
AF: Center for Environmental Prediction - Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 United States
AU: Weaver, C
EM: weaver@cep.rutgers.edu
AF: Center for Environmental Prediction - Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 United States
AB: Recent modeling work with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), validated with observations, has shown that the impact of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change over a span of twenty years in the Greater Phoenix area has had important consequences on the dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics of the regional Arizona climate. In particular, we investigate the impact of anthropogenic LULC change, derived with remotely sensed observations from NASA satellites, on the climate and hydrologic cycle of the Greater Phoenix area. Numerical modeling results using LULC data derived from 1970's Landsat data were compared with simulations making use of the National Land Cover Dataset for 2001 (NLCD 2001). We find that simulation of event-scale to seasonal precipitation in the Greater Phoenix area during the wettest part of the year, that of the North American Monsoon System (NAMS), is sensitive to these land-surface changes. These results, in the context of the facts that Phoenix is one of the most rapidly expanding U.S. cities and that, being in an arid region, its water management challenges are significant, have implications for the future climate, environment, and quality of life in the region.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1818 Evapotranspiration
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting