Conversion of agricultural lands to urban uses affects regional and global climate not only through the release of greenhouse gases but also through altering land surface physical processes such as energy and water balances. Most existing studies on the meteorological impacts of urbanization focus on urban heat island effects with little attention on its impacts of atmospheric humidity, a key variable in hydrometeorology and climate science. We define the influences of urbanization on reducing atmospheric humidity and elevating vapor pressure deficit as urban dry island (UDI) effects. We conduct a case study in the Yangtze River Delta, a typical humid area in southern China that is under rapid urbanization. We examine spatiotemporal characteristics of UDI and identify potential drivers during 2001–2014. Relationships and interactions between variations of air temperature, atmospheric humidity, evapotranspiration, and leaf area index of different land cover were determined using correlation and attribution analyses at both station and regional levels. We show that atmospheric humidity decreased dramatically and vapor pressure deficit increased sharply in the urban core, resulting in enhanced UDI. In addition to global warming and localized urban heat island, UDI is closely related to the loss of vegetation cover (i.e., natural wetlands and paddies). Reduction of evapotranspiration or latent heat is another important factor contributing to UDI effects. We conclude that the role of vegetated land cover and associated ecohydrological processes in moderating UDI and maintaining a stable climate and environment should be considered in massive urban planning and global change impact assessment in southern China.

Understanding the effects of land use change on evapotranspiration (ET) and its partitioning to transpiration and evaporation is important for accurately evaluating the likely environmental impacts on watershed water supply, climate moderation, and other ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and biodiversity). This study used a distributed hydrologic model, MIKE SHE, to partition evapotranspiration into soil evaporation, transpiration, ponded water evaporation, and interception, and examined how the ET partitions affected the water balance in the Qinhuai River Basin from 2000 to 2013. Simulated daily ET was compared to measurements at an eddy flux research site during 2016–2017 (R² = 0.72). Degradation in rice-wheat rotation fields and expansion of impervious surfaces impacted not only total watershed evapotranspiration, which showed a significant downward trend (p < 0.05), but also its partitioning. A significant (p < 0.01) decrease in transpiration was detected. Ponded water evaporation was the only ET partition that exhibited a significant positive trend (p < 0.05). We concluded that the reduced transpiration as a result of land use and land cover change was the primary factor driving the variation of watershed scale evapotranspiration. In addition, there was an increase in annual water yield (23%) as a response to significant reduction in ET (7%) due to a 175% expansion of urban area in the study watershed. Our study provided insights to the mechanisms of land surface–water cycle interaction and better understanding of the effects of land use change on urban micro-climate such as “urban dry island” and “urban heat island” effects.

Studying the impact of vegetation dynamics on hydrological processes is essential for environmental management to reduce ecological environment risk and develop sustainable water management strategies under global warming. This case study simulated the responses of streamflow to vegetation cover degradation under climate variations in the Xilin River Basin in a semi-arid steppe of northern China. The snowmelt and river ice melting processes in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) were improved to estimate the changes in streamflow under multiple scenarios. Results showed that the improved SWAT simulations matched well to the measured monthly streamflow for both calibration (determination coefficient R2 = 0.75 and Nash–Sutcliffe ENS = 0.67) and validation periods (R2 = 0.74 and ENS = 0.68). Simulations of vegetation change revealed that obvious changes occurred in streamflow through conversion between high and low vegetation covers. The reductions in vegetation cover can elevate streamflow in both rainfall and snowmelt season, but the effects are most pronounced during the rainfall seasons (i.e., the growing seasons) and in drier years. These findings highlight the importance of vegetation degradation on modifying the hydrological partitioning in a semi-arid steppe basin. We conclude that in a particular climate zone, vegetation cover change is one of the important contributing factors to streamflow variations. Increases in streamflow in water-limited regions will likely reduce the effective water content of soil, which in turn leads to further degradation risk in vegetation. Therefore, vegetation cover management is one of the most effective and sustainable methods of improving water resources in water-constrained regions.

The large-scale conversion of vegetated land to urban use leads to a significant reduction in evapotranspiration (ET) due to the lack of vegetation, which may aggravate urban dry island (UDI) effect. Analysis of diurnal and seasonal (e.g. growing season) variations in UDI can help us to better identify the role of ET in processes of UDI. We compared six-hourly weather observation data (1980–2017) from 140 paired urban-rural stations across a large climatic gradient in China to explore how near-surface atmospheric dryness changed both diurnally and seasonally, and its relationship with urbanization-associated ecohydrological processes. We showed that the difference in atmospheric dryness (i.e. UDI intensity) between urban and rural areas, as measured by specific humidity (Δq < 0), is more pronounced during the daytime and growing seasons. The nighttime urban wet island (UWI, Δq > 0) effect partially offset daily UDI effect, which has made the latter underestimated. Intensified nighttime urban heat island (UHI) reduced the diurnal temperature range (DTR) in cities and thus enhanced nighttime UWI effect from 2000 to 2010. However, after 2010, nighttime UWI effect weakened or disappeared, whereas nighttime UDI intensified in humid cities, resulting in a significant increase in daily UDI. Intensified UHI and UDI are often closely coupled (synchronous occurrence) through latent heat (LE) or ET processes, especially after 2010. Our results indicate that the conversion of vegetated lands to urban impervious surface, especially in humid regions, leads to the reduction in transportation during daytime and evaporation at night in urban cores, which alters the relationships between near-surface air temperature, atmospheric moisture, and ET. The present diurnal and seasonal variations in UDI were delineated in detail to explicate the patterns and interconnections of local urban climate and surface ecohydrological processes, which are critical for ecosystem services in urban landscape design.

Potential evapotranspiration (PET), as an indicator of atmospheric evaporative demand, is a critical hydrological and meteorological factor to reflect regional and global hydrological cycles and environmental change. Understanding these nuanced responses of PET to environmental changes is important for agricultural production and water demand estimation. This study rigorously evaluated fluctuations in PET using the Penman–Monteith model over a 50-year span from 1970 to 2020 in the Sichuan–Chongqing region, an area notably susceptible to climate change. The changing characteristics of PET and local meteorological factors were detected by integrating the Mann–Kendall method and Pettitt test. Furthermore, the contribution and sensitivity of key meteorological variables to the observed variation in PET were also thoroughly investigated. Breakpoint analysis revealed that abrupt changes appeared in 1996 for annual PET. The detrending method indicated that substantial decreases in net radiation and wind speed (p < 0.01) were responsible for the decrease in annual PET from 1970 to 1996. Marked increases in minimum temperature and wind speed were the driving forces behind the uptick in annual PET in 1997–2020. At seasonal scales, wind speed and net radiation predominantly influenced PET in 1970–1996 in general. However, from 1997 to 2020, the factors controlling PET fluctuations displayed considerable seasonal variation. Sensitivity analysis showed that W_s and T_min were the second-most sensitive factors. By exploring the impacts of PET changes and shifts, attention must be paid when allocating water resources reasonably under the background of ongoing climate change and likelihood of future drought.