Evaluating water and energy fluxes across three distinct land cover types in a desert urban environment

Urbanization impacts surface energy and water balances across multiple spatial and temporal scales, which can be particularly important in desert cities where resources are limited. Urban climate observations are limited, especially over a variety of locations that represent urban land cover. To help address the lack of observations over different urban land cover types, a mobile eddy covariance tower (ECT) was deployed at three different locations in the Phoenix metropolitan area, representing a xeric landscape (drip irrigated palo verde trees with gravel), a parking lot, and a mesic landscape (sprinkler irrigated turf grass). In this project, data obtained from the mobile ECT deployments will be coupled with data from an eddy covariance tower managed by CAP LTER in the Maryvale suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. Data is processed to obtain energy and water fluxes, which are controlled by land surface characteristics, over the four distinct land cover types.