Modelling Urban Energy and Water Fluxes with SUEWS under Data-Scarce Conditions in Delhi, India

Understanding local-scale surface energy and water fluxes is essential for assessing the impact of urbanization on local climate. The Surface Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is a widely used urban land surface model for simulating these fluxes at the neighbourhood scale. However, its application in rapidly urbanizing data-scarce regions such as Indian cities is challenging due to limited flux observations and urban surface data. With the aim to assess the performance of SUEWS in capturing the surface energy and water balance dynamics, we use satellite-derived inputs with the nearest neighbour image processing technique to represent land use land cover, urban morphology and surface characteristics. The study area comprises two locations in Delhi, each delineated into nine grids centered on an existing meteorological observation station. The model has been run for a decade, and its performance is evaluated with remote sensing proxies for surface energy fluxes and observations of temperature and relative humidity. Results show that SUEWS can reasonably capture the seasonal variation and magnitude of urban energy components despite using derived data products. The study highlights practical strategies for urban flux modelling in data-scarce regions and is crucial for providing insights that support evidence-based urban planning to mitigate the urban heat island effect and sustainable water management policies.