Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States
Anthropogenic changes are likely to intensify rainfall extremes, posing a risk to human, environmental and urban systems. Understanding the impact of urbanization on rainfall extremes is critical for both reliable climate projections as well as sustainable urban development. This study presents the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8980 |
| _version_ | 1827869984347389952 |
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| author | Jitendra Singh Subhankar Karmakar Debasish PaiMazumder Subimal Ghosh Dev Niyogi |
| author_facet | Jitendra Singh Subhankar Karmakar Debasish PaiMazumder Subimal Ghosh Dev Niyogi |
| author_sort | Jitendra Singh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Anthropogenic changes are likely to intensify rainfall extremes, posing a risk to human, environmental and urban systems. Understanding the impact of urbanization on rainfall extremes is critical for both reliable climate projections as well as sustainable urban development. This study presents the unexplored impacts of changes arising in urban areas on rainfall extremes over the Contiguous United States. The results show a 2.7-fold higher probability of exceeding a 25% change in 50 year rainfall events over urban areas than over rural areas. Spatially, the changes in rainfall extremes over the central, northeast central, southeast, and northwest central zones were more pronounced due to urbanization. Statistical analyses highlight a positive relationship between changes in rainfall extremes and urbanization within a set of concentric ring buffers around rain gauge stations. Here, we show that urbanization, even though a local feature, influences the mesoscale meteorological setting; and, is statistically associated with an intensification of rainfall extremes across the Contiguous United States. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ed19698de50a4942bd8fa78b82c9bf9f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:18Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-ed19698de50a4942bd8fa78b82c9bf9f2023-08-09T15:07:28ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-0115707403310.1088/1748-9326/ab8980Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United StatesJitendra Singh0Subhankar Karmakar1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1132-1403Debasish PaiMazumder2Subimal Ghosh3Dev Niyogi4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1848-5080Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai 400 076, India; School of the Environment, Washinghton State University , Vancouver, WA, USAEnvironmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai 400 076, India; Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai 400 076, IndiaAmerican International Group, Cat, Management & Analytics Center of Excellence , Philadelphia, PA, United State of AmericaInterdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai 400 076, India; Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai 400 076, IndiaPurdue University , West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States of America; University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, United States of AmericaAnthropogenic changes are likely to intensify rainfall extremes, posing a risk to human, environmental and urban systems. Understanding the impact of urbanization on rainfall extremes is critical for both reliable climate projections as well as sustainable urban development. This study presents the unexplored impacts of changes arising in urban areas on rainfall extremes over the Contiguous United States. The results show a 2.7-fold higher probability of exceeding a 25% change in 50 year rainfall events over urban areas than over rural areas. Spatially, the changes in rainfall extremes over the central, northeast central, southeast, and northwest central zones were more pronounced due to urbanization. Statistical analyses highlight a positive relationship between changes in rainfall extremes and urbanization within a set of concentric ring buffers around rain gauge stations. Here, we show that urbanization, even though a local feature, influences the mesoscale meteorological setting; and, is statistically associated with an intensification of rainfall extremes across the Contiguous United States.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8980extremesurbanizationnonstationaryrainfall |
| spellingShingle | Jitendra Singh Subhankar Karmakar Debasish PaiMazumder Subimal Ghosh Dev Niyogi Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States Environmental Research Letters extremes urbanization nonstationary rainfall |
| title | Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States |
| title_full | Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States |
| title_fullStr | Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States |
| title_full_unstemmed | Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States |
| title_short | Urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous United States |
| title_sort | urbanization alters rainfall extremes over the contiguous united states |
| topic | extremes urbanization nonstationary rainfall |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8980 |
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