Modifying Roughness Lengths Derived from Land Cover/Land Use Data with Road and Runway Metadata: Comparison to Mesonet Data

Land cover and land use (LULC) data, such as provide by the USGS, can be used to determine directionally dependent surface roughness length values for sites of interest. However, nearby roads and other large areas of pavement are often assigned land cover categories that may not be representative in terms of a surface roughness length, even in non-urban settings. Here, we apply road and runway metadata to modify USSG 30 m land cover data (in TIF format) to include a pavement classification. Using gust factor data from proximity mesonet stations, a flux-footprint methodology for generating directionally dependent effective roughness lengths for test sites is compared with and with-out the additional pavement classification. The utility in modifying LULC data for a pavement classification in mesonet applications is discussed.