Stone forest as a small-scale field model for the study of urban climate

Abstract

Reduced‐scale physical models of real cities are a useful approach to studying the physical processes of urban climate. Here, we consider a stone forest as a small‐scale field model of urban climate. The study was conducted in the scenic area of stone forest (24.81°N, 103.32°E), located in Yunnan Province in southwest China. The stone forest is a set of limestone formations with heights ranging from 10 to 30 m. These stones are thought to be similar to buildings in cities because the thermal properties of the stones are similar to those of the concrete of human‐made structures in cities. The thermal environment of the stone forest can thus be considered to simulate that of cities. Our field measurements were conducted over 2 years in four different areas to simulate typical urban morphology and environment scenarios, that is, high‐rise compact, low‐rise sparse, garden, and isolated single‐stone areas. The field measurements in the stone forest demonstrated several phenomena common to cities—higher mean temperature, smaller amplitude, and delayed phase lag—as opposed to rural areas. Unlike cities, air pollution and anthropogenic heat are limited in the stone forest; hence, we attribute the differences between the four areas to the effects of stone forest morphology. With increasing compactness, the daily amplitude is reduced and the daily phase delayed. Rather than the mean temperature alone, the daily amplitude and phase may be better indicators of the effects of urban morphology on the daily temperature cycle.