Abstract:Using the mesoscale numerical model WRF3.9/Noah/UCM, a numerical simulation was carried out for the week from August 11, 2013 to August 17, 2013 when there was no obvious weather process in the Yangtze River Delta region, and land cover was updated with 2013 MODIS data of 500m resolution. According to the proportion of urban areas, the urban underlying surface is further classified into high, medium and low types to study the impact of their inhomogeneity on the regional heat island effect. The results show that the near-surface meteorological element field in the Yangtze River Delta is sensitive to the inhomogeneity of underlying urban areas. The average heat island intensity, dry island intensity and wind speed attenuation reduce by 16.41%, 20.04% and 6.25%, respectively, compared with those without considering the urban inhomogeneity. Affected by the background wind field, the heat island intensity of urban agglomerations in daytime is weaker than that at night, but both of them extend downstream, and the heat island intensity and the dry island intensity in inland cities is stronger than that in coastal areas. Compared with the test on heterogeneous city underlying surface, and considering the effect of inhomogeneity on the urban environment, the heat island intensity and dry island identity weaken on a whole. The structure of the vertical heat island circulation during daytime is obvious, and the overall structure can extend to a height of 2 km. With the southeast wind, the heat island circulation in the high density urban areas of the upper reaches on the heat island will restrain the development of the downstream heat island circulation. Considering the urban inhomogeneity, the upstream effect is more significant. The heat island intensity is affected by the inhomogeneity in the evening and at night, and can be weakened up to 0.2℃. Besides, the time to become a stronger heat island will be delayed, and the holding time will also be shortened. Therefore, neglecting the inhomogeneity of urban underlying surface may overestimate the regional heat island effect.