Shankar Sharma

Sharma completed his Master’s degree in Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Environment at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He began his Ph.D. in 2023 at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), UNSW Sydney. His doctoral research examines how urbanization and land-cover change influence rainfall characteristics and related atmospheric processes over Sydney, using high-resolution numerical modelling as well as satellite observations.

Supervised by: Jason P. Evans and Andy Pitman

Project Title: Urban Growth and Its Impact on Sydney’s Precipitation

Project Description: Urban Growth and Its Impact on Sydney’s Precipitation:

This project investigates how long-term urban expansion and land-cover change have modified rainfall characteristics over the Sydney region. Using high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations, two parallel experiment sets are conducted: one with fixed 1990 land cover and another with dynamically updated urban land cover representing urban growth at five-year intervals from 1990 to 2020. By comparing the fixed and real (time-varying) land-cover experiments, the study isolates how evolving urban form and extent influence rainfall processes relative to the 1990 city baseline. The analysis focuses on changes in rainfall intensity, frequency, spatial structure, and storm behaviour, together with associated atmospheric processes such as boundary-layer dynamics, wind patterns, and urban heat effects, to improve physical understanding of urban-driven precipitation modification in coastal metropolitan environments.

In addition, satellite-based precipitation datasets are also explored to place the modelling results within a broader spatial context and to assess urban rainfall signals across larger domains beyond the simulation region.