IMPACT OF URBANIZATION IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF EASTERN CHINA ON PRECIPITATION AND ITS UNCERTAINTY

Climate effect caused by urbanization has been an indispensable anthropogenic factor in the research on regional climate change. Based on daily precipitation data, possible effects of precipitation on the development of three city groups in eastern China are discussed. With three classification methods (TP, PD and MODIS land cover), urban and rural stations are identified. The main findings are as follows. Climate effects caused by urbanization are different from place to place. In 1960 to 2009, the urbanization brought more precipitation to the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta city groups but had no obvious effect on the precipitation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan city group. The difference of precipitation is slight between urban and suburban areas during slow period of the urbanization from 1960 to 1979. It is more evident in the rapid period (1980 to 2009) that urbanization has positive effects on precipitation in every city group. The difference of precipitation between urban and rural stations is sensitive to the ways of distinguishing rural from urban area, which may cause uncertainties in 1960 to 1979, while it is very different in 1980 to 2009 in which urbanization favors more precipitation in all city groups and their differences in precipitation are not sensitive to the division methods.