COST-728 workshop on
“Model urbanization strategy”
UKMO, Exeter, UK, 3-4 May 2007

A COST Action 728 workshop on ‘Urbanisation of meteorological and air quality models’ will be organised on May 3-4, 2007 at the UK Met Office, Fitzroy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK. The aim of the workshop will be to discuss and make recommendations on the best practice and strategy for urbanisation of different types of meteorological and air quality models. This workshop is a logical continuation of the Special Section and Round Table on "Urban sub-layer parameterisations in meteorological, climate and environmental models" of the 6th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC-2006) in Göteborg, Sweden, June 12th - 16th 2006

Main emphasis of workshop presentations will be on the following main topics:
1.   Urban morphology and databases,
2.   Parameterisations of urban canopy,
3.   Strategy for urbanization of different types of models,
4.   Verification and city case studies / experiments.

Organisers of the workshop welcome interested participants from NWP and air quality consortia. Discussions on the following important points/questions are especially welcome at the meeting:

o Variables we want to model (and degree of precision) for different applications (air quality, emergency response, urban climatology, weather forecast, etc.). For example,

o Do we want values within the canopy or only total fluxes?

o Do we want good turbulent values?

o For dispersion applications, do we want mean concentrations or also variances?

o Best way to evaluate the capability of the parameterizations to model the relevant variables i.e.,

• urban measurement campaigns
• wind tunnel experiments
• role of the CFD/LES models

o Ways to improve the parameterizations (if needed).

• For dynamics: porosity models, dispersive stress, role of CFD/LES models.
• For energy: need for building energy models

Presentations will be split between dynamical effects (on wind and turbulent) one day, and thermal effects (on temperature and energy in general) on the other day. A keynote lecture on each of the main topics is planned in addition to contributions of the workshop participants. The workshop will start in the morning 9:30 of Thursday, May the 3rd, and end afternoon 4:30 of Friday, May the 4th.


Participation and deadlines

To participate, please send an e-mail to the local organiser Maria Athanassiadou (maria.athanassiadou@metoffice.gov.uk), with a title of your (20 minute) presentation till 16 April 2007. Short abstracts for the workshop site are welcome till 30th April, 2007. An extended abstract for the (printed) workshop report should be provided after the workshop, (30th June 2007). Participate without making a presentation is welcome, as long as you notify the local organiser in time because of space and arrangements.

There is no registration fee for the workshop. 

Information about travel and accommodation in Exeter can be found here.  

Support for travel expenses is available for COST-728 members and invited experts upon request: please find the contact info at COST-728 web sites (links below).

Organisers

International organising committee:

Maria Athanassiadou (UKMO), Alexander Baklanov (Danish Meteorological Institute), Bob Bornstein (Jose State University, USA), Peter Clark, (UKMO), Stefano Galmarini (Joint Research Center, Italy), Sven-Erik Gryning (Risø NL, Denmark), Alberto Martilli (CIEMAT, Spain), Ranjeet Sokhi (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Sergej Zilitinkevich (Helsinki University, Finland).

The workshop is arranged in the framework of COST action 728 "Enhancing Mesoscale Meteorological Modelling Capabilities for Air Pollution and Dispersion Applications".

The local organiser in Exeter is UKMO http://www.metoffice.gov.uk .

Contact e-mails in workshop issues: 

Maria Athanassiadou, maria.athanassiadou@metoffice.gov.uk, 

Peter Clark, peter.clark@metoffice.gov.uk ,

Alexander Baklanov, alb@dmi.dk