Applications of meteorology to address growing populations

What is it about?

This chapter describes several applications that enable the population to interact with the environment in more sustainable ways. The first topic treated is urbanization itself and the types of stresses exerted by population growth and its attendant growth in urban landscapes - buildings and pavement – and how they modify airflow and create a local climate. We describe environmental impacts of these changes and implications for the future. The growing population uses increasing amounts of energy. Traditional sources of energy have taxed the environment but the increase in renewable energy has used the atmosphere and hydrosphere as its fuel. Utilizing these variable renewable resources requires meteorological information to operate electric systems efficiently and economically while providing reliable power and minimizing environmental impacts. The growing human population also pollutes the environment. Thus, understanding and modeling the transport and dispersion of atmospheric contaminants is an important step toward regulating the pollution and mitigating impacts. Finally, this chapter describes how weather information can help make surface transportation more safe and efficient.

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Why is it important?

As the American Meteorological Society reaches its 100th anniversary, it is important to review how meteorology has changed over the past century. Here we review how meteorology has been able to enable progress in urbanization, energy, and surface transportation while mitigating air pollution.