Influence of land-use misrepresentation on the accuracy of WRF wind estimates: Evaluation of GLCC and CORINE land-use maps in southern Spain

• Published in: Atmospheric research Vol. 157; pp. 17 - 28
• Main Authors: Santos-Alamillos, F.J., Pozo-Vázquez, D., Ruiz-Arias, J.A., Tovar-Pescador, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-04-2015
• Subjects: CORINE; GLCC; Land cover; Wind evaluation; WRF; ANE, Spain; Wind evaluation; WRF; GLCC; Land cover; CORINE
• ISSN: 0169-8095; 1873-2895
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2015.01.006

In this work, we evaluate the influence of land-use representation accuracy on the reliability of wind speed and direction estimates derived from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. To this end, the 100-m spatial resolution Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) land-use dataset was implemented as static geographic data in WRF. Next, a set of one-year long simulations at 1-km spatial resolution was conducted using both the CORINE and Global Land Cover Characterization (GLCC) land-use datasets, the latter the default in WRF. The simulations were conducted for three locations in southern Spain, and were characterized by variable land-use composition and topography. At these locations, wind speed and direction estimates were compared against observations at different measurement elevations. Results showed that the selection of land-use database has a major influence on wind estimate bias. The effect on the wind direction distribution is also significant, whereas that on the standard deviation is much weaker. CORINE provided a more reliable land-use representation than GLCC. Nevertheless, as a consequence of the interpolation procedure used for land use in the domain setup, this representation did not necessarily translate to a superior roughness length, thereby affecting wind speed and direction estimates. This was particularly so for areas of high spatial variability in land-use categories. In such areas, the misrepresentation of land use may result in large wind speed estimation errors.
•WRF configured with Corine Land Cover represents more accurately the spatial variability of land use than GLCC.•The better representation of land use associated with high roughness length values allows more accurate wind estimates.•The overestimation or underestimation of roughness length contributes to underestimation or overestimation of wind speed.•Only land use associated with high roughness length values shows an influence on wind direction.•The influence of land use representation on wind estimates decreases at higher measuring elevation.