SLUCM+BEM (v1.0): A simple parameterisation for dynamic anthropogenic heat and electricity consumption in WRF-Urban (v4.3.2)

Abstract. We propose a simple dynamic anthropogenic heat (Q_F) parameterisation for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM). The SLUCM is a remarkable physically based urban canopy model that is widely used worldwide. However, a limitation of SLUCM is that it considers a statistically based diurnal pattern of Q_F. Consequently, Q_F is not affected by outdoor temperature changes and the diurnal pattern of Q_F is constant throughout the simulation period. To address these limitations, based on the concept of a building energy model (BEM), which has been officially introduced in WRF, we propose a parameterisation to dynamically and simply simulate Q_F from buildings (Q_FB) through physically based calculation of the indoor heat load and input parameters for BEM and SLUCM. This method allows model users to simulate dynamic Q_F and electricity consumption (EC) according to factors such as outdoor temperature changes, building insulation, and heating and air conditioning (HAC) performance simply by setting the AHOPTION option in URBPRAM.TBL to 2. SLUCM+BEM was shown to simulate temporal variations of Q_FB and EC for HAC (EC_HAC) and broadly reproduce the EC_HAC estimates of more sophisticated BEM and EC_HAC observations in the world’s largest metropolis, Tokyo. Our results demonstrate that SLUCM-BEM can be applied to urban climates worldwide.