Modeling Impacts of Urbanization on Winter Boundary Layer Meteorology and Aerosol Pollution in the Central Liaoning City Cluster, China

The influence of urbanization on the frequent winter aerosol pollution events in Northeast China is not fully understood. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF–Chem) coupled with urban canopy (UC) models was used to simulate the impact of urbanization on an aerosol pollution process in the Central Liaoning city cluster (CLCC), China. To investigate the main mechanisms of urban expansion and UC on the winter atmospheric environment and the atmospheric diffusion capacity (ADC) in the CLCC, three simulation cases were designed using land-use datasets from different periods and different UC schemes. A comparative analysis of the simulation results showed that the land-use change (LU) and both LU and UC (LUUC) effects lead to higher surface temperature and lower relative humidity and wind speed in the CLCC by decreasing surface albedo, increasing sensible heat flux, and increasing surface roughness, with a spatial distribution similar to the distribution of LU. The thermal effect leads to an increase in atmospheric instability, an increase in boundary layer height and diffusion coefficient, and an increase in the ADC. The LU and LUUC effects lead to a significant decrease in near-surface PM(2.5) concentrations in the CLCC due to changes in meteorological conditions and ADC within the boundary layer. The reduction in surface PM(2.5) concentrations due to the LU effect is stronger at night than during daytime, while the LUUC effect leads to a greater reduction in surface PM(2.5) concentrations during the day, mainly due to stronger diffusion and dilution caused by the effect of urban turbulence within different levels caused by the more complex UC scheme. In this study, the LU and LUUC effects result in greater thermal than dynamic effects, and both have a negative impact on surface PM(2.5) concentrations, but redistribute pollutants from the lower urban troposphere to higher altitudes.