Recent research on global climate change has focused on global warming, desertification, deforestation and related macro- scale changes in the environment. While local and regional climatic modification has been included in this theme generally, such research has tended to concentrate on micro-scale studies of urban canyons. Meso-scale models consider the boundary layer of air and the city's overall modification of it. Recent advancements in remote sensing techniques, geographical information systems, and energy balance models permit the matching of land use information with remotely sensed surface temperature data at an appropriate scale of resolution so that climate modification associated with desert metropolitan development can be analyzed. This project will examine the causal links between urban development and climate modification using surface temperature, reflectivity, vegetation indices, thermal inertia, and current land use for the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Remotely sensed imagery, climatic records, computer modeling and field work will be used to understand the complex set of relationships between the urban fabric and near surface and boundary layer climate at varying resolutions of spatial scale. This research will improve upon existing models of urban climate modification by analyzing data from different sources at the same level of spatial scale, permitting more accurate assessment of the influence of human activity on climate conditions at the surface. The use of the Phoenix area as a laboratory to design and test methods for evaluating land use change on climate conditions will have important extensions to critically sensitive arid and semi-arid regions of the world.
