Climatic Impacts of Urbanization in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and Effects of Cool Roofs to Mitigate Future Regional Climate Change

People living in urban metropolitan areas experience greater temperature extremes compared to those in rural areas due to the urban heat island effect. Kansas City metropolitan area is among the U.S. areas which have experienced massive urban expansion, especially in the past few decades. It is projected to witness further growth in the future. This study utilizes the high-resolution regional Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, coupled to the single-layer urban canopy model to first investigate the climatic impacts of urbanization in the area. We then explore the potential mitigating effects of implementation of cool roofs with higher albedo in this region. We develop a suite of WRF simulations: 1) early 21st century, 2) present day, 3) end-of-21st-century without cool roof implementation, and 4) end-of-21st-century with cool-roof implementation. Urban land cover for the first two simulations is obtained from the National Land Cover Dataset. The last two simulations utilize urban land cover from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios, which projects land use through the 21st century. Model simulations are compared and results are presented in this study.