Urban surface parameters

This page is part of the Urban Surface Mod (USM) documentation.
It contains a listing of all PALM input parameters used to steer the USM.
Please also see the technical documentation.

Since r19xx an urban surface model (USM) is available in PALM. A brief description of the USM will follow here (see LSM description as an example). It consists of a multi layer wall and soil model, predicting wall and soil temperature and moisture content, and a solver for the energy balance, predicting the temperature of the surface or the skin layer. Urban surfaces (building surfaces) are simulated using a tile approach. Each surface element consists of a fraction of bare wall/ roof, window and green elements (green roofs/ facades) with underlying soil layers (green roofs only) and a bare wall/ roof structure.

All parts of the USM code are modularized in module urban_surface_mod. In this context, a new Fortran namelist urban_surface_parameters was added, containing all USM-related steering parameters. The USM is automatically activated when an urban_surface_parameter is set in the parameter file (_p3d).

NAMELIST group name: urban_surface_parameters

---

Steering:

Parameter Name	FORTRAN Type	Default Value	Explanation
building_type	I	1	Building classifiaction according to age and usage. building_type Description (use, age) albedo_type 0 User_defined (all parameters must be set by the user. This requires to use a static driver file 1 Residential, < 1950 33 2 Residential, 1950 - 2000 33 3 Residential, > 2000 33 4 Office, < 1950 33 5 Office, 1950 - 2000 33 6 Office, > 2000 33
roof_category	I	2	Roof category. Default category for roof surface.
roof_inner_temperature	R	295.0	Inner temperature of roofs. Temperature of the inner roof surface (inside the building)(K). The value is not used in case of using indoor model.
roughness_concrete	R	0.001	Roughness length of concrete. Roughness length of average concrete surface (m). This values is used to calculation of roughness relative to concrete.
soil_inner_temperature	R	288.0	Deep soil temperature. Temperature of the deep soil. (K)
usm_wall_mod	L	.F.	Wall conductivity reduction. Reduces conductivity of the first 2 wall layers by factor 0.1 during spinup to make larger timsteps possible.
wall_category	I	2	Wall category. Default category for wall surface over pedestrian zone.
wall_inner_temperature	R	295.0	Inner wall temperature. Temperature of the inner wall surface (inside the building)(K). The value is not used in case of using indoor model.
window_inner_temperature	R	295.0	Inner window temperature. Temperature of the inner window surface (inside the building)(K). The value is not used in case of using indoor model.