On the influence of windward edge structure and stand density on the flow characteristics at forest edges

Experimental investigations in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel were carried out in order to study both the influence of the windward edge structure and the stand density on the flow characteristics near the canopy top of forest edges. For the edge structure investigation, two different types of forest edges were used. The taper angle was varied three times for both edge types, and all tapered edges were combined with both dense and sparse forest stands. In addition, a configuration was investigated where the airflow in the trunk space of the dense forest was blocked completely by an impermeable wall. In order to study the influence of stand density, forest stands were varied three times by removing whole rows of the originally dense model forest. The measurements show that a forest edge induces strong disturbances in the flow field at the near-edge region leading to an increased momentum transfer and to an increased wind loading on trees. The region of significant disturbances extends to a distance of about eight tree heights. Both edge density and taper angle determine the amount of volume influx through the edge, which seems to be primarily responsible for the flow field properties near the canopy top. It was found that for sparse forest stands, sloping tapered edges reduce the wind velocities nearest to the canopy. It could also be shown that the positive skewness of the near-canopy longitudinal velocity distribution is diminished with decreasing taper angle indicating that higher wind velocity fluctuations are reduced.