Rapid urbanization induced daily maximum wind speed decline in metropolitan areas: A case study in the Yangtze River Delta (China)

Wind extremes cause many environmental and natural hazard related problems globally, particularly in heavily populated metropolitan areas. However, the underlying causes of maximum wind speed variability urbanized regions remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated how rapid urbanization Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China, impacted daily (DMWS) between 1990 2015, based on near-surface (10 m height) DMWS observations, reanalysis datasets, night-time lighting data (a proxy for urbanization). The station observation shows that annual YRD significantly (p < 0.05) declined during 1990–2015, by −0.209 s−1 decade−1, while slightly > 0.1) positive trends were found NCEP-NCAR1 (+0.048 decade−1) ERA5 (+0.027 decade−1). An increasing divergence output since 2005 was found, those stations located areas with high rates show strongest negative trend, implying key role weakening DMWS. This finding is supported sensitivity experiments conducted using a regional climate model (RegCM4) forced both 2015 land-use land-cover (LULC) data, where simulated LULC lower than data.