Measurement of Urban fluxes of CO2 and water

Measurements of surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide (FCO2) and latent heat in urban environments are rare even though cities are a major source of atmospheric CO2 and users of water. In this paper, an overview of urban FCO2 measurements will be presented to illustrate how and where such measurements are being conducted and emerging results to date. Most of these studies have been conducted over short periods of time; few studies have considered annual sources/sinks. More investigations have been conducted, and are planned, in European cities than elsewhere, most commonly in areas of medium density urban development. The most dense urban sites are significant net sources of carbon. However, in areas where there is large amounts of vegetation present, there is a net sink of carbon during the summertime. In the second part of the presentation, more detailed attention will be directed to an ongoing measurement program in Baltimore, MD (part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study). Eddy covariance instrumentation mounted on a tall-tower at 41.2 m has continuously measured local-scale fluxes of carbon dioxide from a suburban environment since 2001. Several features make this particular study unique: 1) for an urban area, the study site is extensively vegetated, 2) the period of record (2001-2005) is among the longest available for urban FCO2 measurements, 3) both closed-path and open-path infrared gas analyzers are used for observations, and 4) several unique data quality control and gap-filling methods have been developed for use in an urban environment. Additionally, detailed surface datasets and GIS software are used to perform flux source area analysis. Results from Baltimore indicate that FCO2 is very dependent on source area land-cover characteristics, particularly the proportion of vegetated and built surfaces. Over the course of a year, the urban surface is a strong net source of CO2, though there is considerable inter-annual variability depending on environmental conditions (e.g. average temperature, total precipitation, cicada infestation). During the growing season, there is net uptake of CO2 by the surface, but this uptake is less than in forested areas and is not enough to offset CO2 emissions for the entire year