Increasing the albedo of urban surfaces, through strategies like white roof installations, has emerged as a promising approach for urban climate adaptation. Yet, modeling these strategies on a large scale is limited by the use of static urban surface albedo representations in the Earth system models. In this study, we developed a new transient urban surface albedo scheme in the Community Earth System Model and evaluated evolving adaptation strategies under varying urban surface albedo configurations. Our simulations model a gradual increase in the urban surface albedo of roofs, impervious roads, and walls from 2015 to 2099 under the SSP3‐7.0 scenario. Results highlight the cooling effects of roof albedo modifications, which reduce the annual‐mean canopy urban heat island intensity from 0.8°C in 2015 to 0.2°C by 2099. Compared to high‐density and medium‐density urban areas, higher albedo configurations are more effective in cooling environments within tall building districts. Additionally, urban surface albedo changes lead to changes in building energy consumption, where high albedo results in more indoor heating usage in urban areas located beyond 30°N and 25°S. This scheme offers potential applications like simulating natural albedo variations across urban surfaces and enables the inclusion of other urban parameters, such as surface emissivity.

Many studies have developed green strategies and technologies for urban construction, but they sometimes ignored the intensive and dynamic relationships between people, buildings and the natural environment. This study focused on how to generate green building design strategies dealing with a coupling relationship between geomorphology and climate, which took an insight into the built environment in a particular locality of the Yangtze River Delta region in China. First, we imported climatic data from six cities into a bioclimatic evaluation tool, named ‘Weather Tool’, to assess the effectiveness of the existing passive design strategies (passive solar heating, thermal mass effects, exposed mass and night purge ventilation, natural ventilation, direct evaporative cooling and indirect evaporative cooling). Second, we employed the topological method to identify the characters of the vernacular dwellings by interpreting their adaptations to the local topographical and climatic conditions. Consequently, the green building design strategies in the Yangtze River Delta region were developed through the macro, middle and micro levels to examine group patterns, single-building forms and building components in a particular locality. The main findings were shown as follows: (1) the common passive strategies played a role with different effects in the Yangtze River Delta region, which acted as a basis for choosing the most effective strategies; (2) the local dwellings presented a comprehensively sustainable paradigm with architectural prototypes that could be selectively inherited and applied in contemporary design. (3) Those particular strategies, which were evaluated through bioclimatic tools and developed from the vernacular dwellings, gave specific suggestions on green building design in the Yangtze River Delta region, providing approaches for architects and developers to promote more environmentally responsive sustainable development.

Environmental adaptation is essential for maintaining a building’s indoor environmental quality and performance. This paper is focused on heritage regeneration research of the sustainable paradigm of Fujian Tulous in China. These earthen dwellings were built hundreds of years ago and were proven to be conventional green buildings today. However, few researchers have clarified or specified regenerative approaches for Tulous in response to realistic demands and sustainable concerns. Our study surveyed 10 non-world-heritage Tulou cases in Nanjing County, Fujian Province, China. Environmental adaptation in the Tulou archetype was analysed through an intensive review and field investigation to explain how they interacted with local climatic conditions. This article analysed the green effects of building components on five passive design strategies—thermal comfort, solar shading, natural lighting, ventilation, and waterproofing—and then proposed conceptual design strategies based on three aspects: reshaping building envelopes, reorganising spatial layouts, and using innovative construction materials and techniques. The conclusions indicated that, to realise the sustainable generation goals of non-world-heritage Tulous, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural issues have to be considered, among which environmental adaptation should be a primary approach.

Urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, necessitating accurate simulations of urban climates in Earth system models (ESMs) in support of large‐scale urban climate adaptation efforts. ESMs underrepresent urban areas due to their small spatial extent and the lack of detailed urban landscape data. To enhance the accuracy of urban representation, this study integrated the local climate zones (LCZs) scheme within the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to better represent urban heterogeneity. We adopted a modular approach to incorporate the 10 built LCZ classes into CESM as a new option in addition to the default urban three‐class scheme (i.e., tall building district, high density, and medium density). CESM simulations using the LCZ‐based urban characteristics were validated globally at 20 flux tower sites, showing site‐averaged improvement in modeling upward longwave radiation () and anthropogenic heat flux (), but increased uncertainties in modeling sensible heat flux (). The root‐mean‐square error between the observed and simulated using the LCZ decreased by 4% compared to using the default. Model sensitivity experiments revealed that and had comparable sensitivity to LCZ urban morphological and thermal parameter subsets. This study assessed and demonstrated the implementation as the starting point for future work on better resolving urban areas in Earth system modeling.