Physical Geography 

About: Physical Geography is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Precipitation & Sediment. It has an ISSN identifier of 0272-3646. Over the lifetime, 1245 publications have been published receiving 25408 citations.

On the validation of models

Abstract: Traditional methods of evaluating geographic models by statistical comparisons between observed and simulated variates are criticized. In particular, it is suggested that the correlation coefficien...

The topographic relative moisture index: an approach to soil-moisture assessment in mountain terrain

Abstract: The Topographic Relative Moisture Index (TRMI), designed to indicate the relative soil moisture availability among sites in mountain terrain, is described. The TRMI is a summed scalar index of four slope parameters: topographic position, slope aspect, steepness, and slope configuration. A review of other methods of characterizing site moisture relations, including direct monitoring, water-balance climatology, site index, and other inferential topographic/edaphic indices, reveals that the simple, straightforward application of the TRMI is rapid, inexpensive, and effective in field research. The ability of the TRMI to portray significant patterns of plant response to environment is demonstrated from empirical studies at both the species-level (the ecology of Arizona cypress) and community-level (forest patterns in Yosemite National Park).

Dynamics and controls of the near-surface heat island of vancouver, british columbia

Abstract: Temporal aspects of the urban heat island (UHI) of Vancouver, British Columbia, are demonstrated using differences of screen-level air temperature observed at an urban (downtown) and rural (farmland) site for three years. On an annual basis, the UHI is at its maximum near the middle of the night and its minimum is in mid-afternoon. Growth of the nocturnal UHI is driven by rural cooling rates in the early evening, which are much greater than the almost constant rates in the city. Growth starts earlier in winter. The largest UHI occurs in the fall, and the smallest in the spring. In daytime there is often a “cool island,” especially in summer. There is an approximately inverse square root control of the UHI by wind speed and the effect of cloud type and amount follows the Bolz relation. Combining the two gives a “weather factor” that is linearly related to maximum UHI magnitude. Seasonal variation of the UHI is shown to be inversely related to the thermal admittance of the rural site, which itself is contro...

An Empirical Method for the Spatial Interpolation of Monthly Precipitation within California

Abstract: An empirical method for interpolating monthly precipitation totals within California is described and evaluated. Using 120 monthly precipitation totals observed from 1961-1970 at each of 90 randomly selected stations in California and a P-mode principal components analysis of a co-variance matrix, four independent sources of precipitation variability were identified and quantitatively paraphrased. The four principal components were then linked to three representative stations by polynomial regression. From these relationships, monthly precipitation totals can be interpolated anywhere in the state by reversing the principal components computations. The required input includes: a monthly precipitation total, for the month of interest, from each of the three representative stations as well as isarithmically interpolated estimates of the component loadings and station means which were derived from the initial (1961-1970) data set. A major asset of the procedure is that it only requires three pieces of new inf...

An approach to the estimation of the surface radiative properties and radiation budgets of cities

Abstract: The principles of radiation geometry and the Lambertian assumption are employed to construct a numerical model of the multiple reflection effects within an urban canyon of variable geometry and surface materials. The canyon model is used to estimate the reflection coefficients for the direct and diffuse short-wave and incoming longwave radiative fluxes and the longwave emissivity of an urban surface. The procedures described are applied to various land-use zones in Columbus, Ohio, for the solstices and equinoxes. The diurnal variation of shortwave reflection coefficients is illustrated; daily values generally increase from the CBD to the residential suburbs. Longwave radiative properties differ little between zones. Radiation budgets are synthesized for each land-use type, assuming negligible atmospheric pollution, and are compared with those for appropriate rural surfaces. Net longwave radiation varies little between zones but net shortwave and net radiation decrease from the CBD to the residential areas...