Author(s)

Sameh Adib Abou Rafee^1*, Ana Beatriz Kawashima¹, Marcos Vinícius Bueno de Morais¹, Viviana Urbina³, Leila Droprinchinski Martins², Jorge Alberto Martins¹

¹Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology-Parana, Londrina, Brazil.
²Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Technology-Parana, Londrina, Brazil.
³Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil.

Land cover classification is one of the main components of the modern weather research and forecasting models, which can influence the meteorological variable, and in turn the concentration of air pollutants. In this study the impact of using two traditional land use classifications, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), were evaluated. The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF, version 3.2.1) was run for the period 18 - 22 August, 2014 (dry season) at a grid spacing of 3 km centered on the city of Manaus. The comparison between simulated and ground-based observed data revealed significant differences in the meteorological fields, for instance, the temperature. Compared to USGS, MODIS classification showed better skill in representing observed temperature for urban areas of Manaus, while the two files showed similar results for nearby areas. The analysis of the files suggests that the better quality of the simulations favorable to the MODIS file is straightly related to its better representation of urban class of land use, which is observed to be not adequately represented by USGS.

Land Use and Land Cover Classification, Regional Modeling Studies, Urban Air Quality

Rafee, S. , Kawashima, A. , Morais, M. , Urbina, V. , Martins, L. and Martins, J. (2015) Assessing the Impact of Using Different Land Cover Classification in Regional Modeling Studies for the Manaus Area, Brazil. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 3, 77-82. doi: 10.4236/gep.2015.36013.