1,1,2,3,4,5,3,7,- 1Department of Earth Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2University College London, Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, London, United Kingdom
- 3Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK
- 4Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences (ACINN), University of Innsbruck, Austria
- 5Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Finland
- 6Institute of Urban Meteorology, Chinese Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China
- 7School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth, UK
The Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is a widely used model in urban climate modelling, addressing numerous urban climatic challenges. Due to the complexity and wide range of physical processes being modelled, properly setting up the model for a specific site can be difficult. A user may have extensive knowledge of building energy but limited understanding of phenology, leading to the use of vegetation parameters that are not suited for the modelled domain.
Urban areas are heterogeneous and complex environments characterised by high variability in geometry, land use, surface materials, vegetation, and anthropogenic activity. Many NWP models utilise a grid-based approach to model energy fluxes, even though grids do not necessarily reflect the actual structure of cities. Within these grids, there is significant variability in building height, age, function, form, and materials, making proper parameterisation challenging.
To make it easier for users to choose relevant parameters, the new SUEWS property database has been developed. This database provides evidence-based parameter entries for different geographical contexts. Located within Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor (UMEP) toolbox in QGIS, it allows users to investigate and add parameters. A new SUEWS prepare QGIS plugin has also been developed, utilising urban typologies that represent certain properties for specific urban neighbourhoods. These typologies enable the swift calculation of urban characteristics and allow for the aggregation of parameters within SUEWS grids. Users can easily create new typologies suited to their needs.
To make the database more comprehensive, a call is being made to SUEWS users in the urban climate community to help update and fill the database with parameters from different parts of the world, building and vegetation types, traffic profiles, etc. By sharing our knowledge and parameters, we can improve SUEWS modelling for all users.
How to cite: Bäcklin, O., Lindberg, F., Sun, T., Grimmond, S., Ward, H., Järvi, L., Hertwig, D., Dou, J., Xie, X., and Liu, Y.: Development and application of an urban typology database and QGIS plugin for the SUEWS model, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-734, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-734, 2025.
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