Progress in the scale modeling of urban climate: Review

This paper describes progress made in the scale modeling Of urban climate. The Studies reviewed are mainly indoor and outdoor experiments that use an array of urban-like flow obstacles or roughness elements such as cubes, blocks, and cylinders. Except for several important and unique Studies, the many experiments that use a single Obstacle, or those that use an array of elements to create a vegetation-like roughness are excluded from this review. Topics considered include turbulent flow, scalar dispersion, local transfer coefficient, radiative transfer, and the Surface energy balance. More than 40 relevant Studies are cited, and both significant developments and remaining problems are described. The future application of scale models to obtain a comprehensive understanding of urban climate is also examined, with the focus mainly upon the possibility Of outdoor experiments.