Urban Meteorology

1
Urban Meteorology
Delivering Improved Weather and Climate Services
for the Urban Zone

• James R. Mahoney, Ph.D.Assistant Secretary of
  Commerce for Oceans and AtmosphereDeputy
  Administrator, NOAA
• September 22, 2004

2
Searching For a System Solution
3
1. What are the problems we are trying to
solve?

• Emergency response protection of public health
  and safety
• Air quality analysis and planning
• HVAC and indoor air quality
• Forecasting weather extremes
• Transportation/weather/air quality relationships
• Flood Protection

4
2. What is the whole system? (Emergency
Response)

• GIS-Based Inventory
• Meteorological and Dispersion Information
• Characterization of Hazardous Material Releases
• Response Strategy Development

5
GIS-Based Inventory

• Population including special risks
• Terrain and building topography
• Exit routes and capacities
• Diurnal and weekly traffic patterns
• Ports, rail lines, and major freight highways
• Hospitals and capacities
• Functional GIS model

6
Meteorological and Dispersion Information

• Synoptic analysis and forecasts
• Local observation networks (data quality)
• Small scale dispersion conditions
• High resolution satellite observations
• Suite of dispersion model algorithms
• Functional meteorological and dispersion model(s)

7
Characterization of Hazardous Material Releases

• Mode (spills, explosives, leaks, etc.)
• Physical/chemical properties
• Toxicity profiles
• Biological propagation and quarantine protocols
• Radiation protection guidelines
• Integrated models including default parameters

8
Response Strategy Development

• Pre-designed ingest protocols
• Master integrated model including defaults
• Communications protocols
• Information systems for first responders
• Unified information for response managers with
  frequent updates

9
3. How do we optimize the solution?

• Objective function Minimize adverse effects of
  accidents and terrorism events
• Constraints Irreducible uncertainties
• - Meteorological dispersion parameters
• - Hazardous materials releases
• Issues
• - Model development
• - Measurement data quality
• - Urban test beds

10
Searching For a System Solution