Heavy and localized rainfall over urban areas could lead to increased flooding in cities.
Heavy and localized rainfall over urban areas could lead to increased flooding in cities.
Summer storms are generally more frequent, intense and concentrated over cities than over rural areas, according to new, detailed observations of eight cities and their surroundings. The results could change how city planners prepare for floods in their cities, especially as urban areas expand and as climate change alters global weather patterns.
The new study finds that more storms form over urban areas and their boundaries than in surrounding areas, and that larger cities intensify rainfall more than smaller cities. The research was published in Earth’s Future, an open-access AGU journal that publishes interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants.
“Cities are expected to become more populated and increase in size in the coming decades,” said Herminia Torelló-Sentelles, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Lausanne and the study’s lead author. “Being able to quantify urban flood risk is important for urban planning and when designing urban drainage systems.”
Read more at American Geophysical Union
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