Benchmarking a new urban scheme in the ORCHIDEE 2.2  land surface model

Lalonde, Morgane; Bastin, Sophie; Oudin, Ludovic; Arboleda-Obando, Pedro Felipe; Ducharne, Agnès

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-9463-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9463-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9463-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

Development and technical paper

|

07 Oct 2026

Development and technical paper |

| 07 Oct 2026

Benchmarking a new urban scheme in the ORCHIDEE 2.2 land surface model

Morgane Lalonde, Sophie Bastin, Ludovic Oudin, Pedro Felipe Arboleda-Obando, and Agnès Ducharne

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9463-2026-supplement

Data sets

Simulations - Benchmarking a new urban scheme in the ORCHIDEE 2.2 land surface model Morgane Lalonde et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22894416

Data for "Harmonized gap-filled dataset from 20 urban flux tower sites" for the Urban-PLUMBER project (Version v1) Mathew Lipson et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7104984

Model code and software

Source Code - Benchmarking a new urban scheme in the ORCHIDEE 2.2 land surface model Morgane Lalonde et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18413342

Scripts - Benchmarking a new urban scheme in the ORCHIDEE 2.2 land surface model Morgane Lalonde et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22934329

Short summary

Some climate models still represent cities as if they were natural ground. For one of these models, we built a new way to represent cities. The update includes how reflective surfaces are, building height, stored heat, and how much ground is sealed. The novelty is to treat sealed ground not only at the surface, but also below it. Tested at twenty urban sites, the new version better represents exchanges of energy between the ground and the air, supporting more reliable urban climate studies.