Urbanization: Impacts on clouds, precipitation, and lightning

Precipitation variability and water cycle changes affect many components of the Earth’s natural and human system. Further, it is clear that natural and anthropogenic activities can perturb key components of the hydrological cycle. Understanding and quantifying such changes is vital for a range of meteorological, hydrological, ecological, and climate problems. In an era of heightened sensitivity concerning climate change, the primary discussion of cloud-precipitation variability has been linked to greenhouse gas emissions. Scientific literature has presented theories and observational studies describing how urbanization influences convective processes and cumulative precipitation. The urban environment’s (i.e., its land use, aerosols, thermal properties) impact on precipitation will be increasingly vital to climate diagnostics and prediction, global water and energy cycle assessment and prediction, weather forecasting, freshwater resource management, agriculture, and urban planning. This chapter presents a contemporary review of findings and methods related to urban effects on precipitation and related convective processes, particularly lightning. Herein, we present historical and current literature, prevailing hypotheses, critical analysis of challenges facing the research topic, and recommendations for the future.