Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Impacts on Regional Climate

September 12, 2014

Udaysankar Nair

Hosted by Jeff Collett

Abstract

Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) change is a forcing factor that is of importance to regional climate. However, LULC change impacts exhibit substantial geographical variation and complex interactions with other forcing factors. This talk will focus on LULC change process studies (observational and numerical modeling analysis) in a variety of settings including isolated mountain in the tropics (Kilimanjaro), semi-arid regions with small terrain variations (Southwest Australia, Niger) and maritime Southeast Asia. Modification of atmospheric circulation ranging from micro scales to synoptic scales, cloud formation and rainfall due to LULC change and complex interactions with other forcing factors will be discussed.