Microscale aspects of NUDAPT

Within the NUDAPT Project, a niche for micro-scale morphology for modelers has been established. The scope of this National Data Base now includes meso-scale and the micro-scale domains and their three sub-divisions of motion (alpha, beta, and gamma) such as were proposed by Orlanski some years ago. Within this scheme, the micro-gamma scale can be equated to the CFD scale. Global and country-scale aspects also are prominent within NUDAPT.

It was previously reported that the characteristics, properties, and format of digitized surface feature morphology for micro-scale usage differ from the coarse grid size and limited morphology types of the meso-scale as well as the ultra-high resolution of the CFD one-for-one dimensions/footprint and the disregard for morphology other than just buildings. Presently, micro-scale modelers have a long list of urban morphology features to work with such as 16 Urban Terrain Zone types, five building properties/characteristics, and some 14 non-building morphology types. The non-building morphology types include trees, shrubs, crops, grass, bare soil, water and various types of impervious surfaces. Data cell resolution of these types of micro-scale morphology has been implemented for 50m and 100m grid cells. Examples of micro-scale morphology data characteristics and properties as well as comparable data sets for limited areas within the Houston, TX urban area will be presented.

There are many potential users of this level of refined morphology data. Organizations and agencies that focus on micro-scale modeling and analyses include US Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service (USDA), Urban Forest Centers, US Army small area field operations, city planners of new urban development, energy and nuclear facilities, HAZMAT responders, and more generally speaking, Homeland Security entities.