Urban Wind Speed Analysis in Global Climate Change Perspective: Karachi as a Case Study

Muhammad A. Hussain, Muhammad J. Iqbal, Safeeullah Soomro

Institute of Business and Technology (BIZTEK), Karachi, Pakistan.
Institute of Space & Planetary Astrophysics, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.
Sindh Madrasa Tul Islam, Karachi, Pakistan.

DOI: 10.4236/ijg.2012.325100                

Abstract

It is now well known that coastal urban local climate has been showing changing pattern due to global climate change. This communication attempts to explore fluctuating pattern of urban average monthly wind speed during past 50 years (1961-2010). It shows peculiar results taking Karachi (24?53'N, 67?00'E), a coastal mega-city of Pakistan, as a case study. Mann-Kendall trend test shows that March, April and October and both summer and winter seasons show positive trends for the average monthly wind speed during the whole study period (1961-2010). For the earlier 25 years data, it has been found that January, March, May, August, November and December and annual wind speed data have shown the negative trends. Only summer season has shown the positive trend for the wind speed. Similarly, for the most recent 25 years data it has been found that January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November and December and annual and both summer and winter wind speed data have shown the positive trends showing some degree of change in wind speed pattern. Probabilistic analysis reveals that average monthly wind speed data sets follow lognormal, logistic, largest extreme value, and Weibull (two-and three-parameters) probability distributions. Change point analysis has also confirmed the change in the pattern of observed average monthly wind speed data near 1992. The analysis performed reveals the effect of global warming on the local urban wind speed which appears to be temporal non-stationary.

Keywords

Urban Wind Speed Trend Analysis; Probability Distribution; Change Point Analysis

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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