Response of the Sea Breeze to Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta Region

The Pearl River delta (PRD) region has undergone rapid urbanization since the 1980s, which has had significant effects on the sea-breeze circulation in this region. Because the sea breeze plays an important role in pollutant transportation and convective initiation in the PRD region, it is meaningful to study the effects of urbanization on the sea breeze. In this study, three numerical experiments were conducted from 2 June to 31 August 2010 with land-use data from 1988, 1999, and 2010. For each simulation, characteristics of the sea breeze such as the start time, end time, intensity, height, pumping ability, and inland penetration distance were quantified. By comparing the characteristics of the sea breeze in these simulations, its response to urbanization was quantified. The results show that urbanization enhances the duration, height, and intensity of the sea breeze but blocks its inland penetration. One physical mechanism is proposed to dynamically elucidate the response of the sea breeze to urbanization. Because the urban area in the PRD region is concentrated near the coast, urbanization imposes a positive heating gradient on the coastal region and a negative heating gradient on the region farther inland. The positive heating gradient may intensify the sea breeze, and the negative heating gradient may prevent the sea breeze from propagating farther inland.