A novel combined morphometric–anemometric approach for mean wind profile calibration in complex urban areas

Accurate modelling of mean wind profiles is essential for the reliable assessment of wind actions on structures in complex urban environments. Conventional approaches suffer from signification limitations, notably the strong uncertainty associated with displacement height estimation and limited robustness across different urban morphologies. This study develops a novel combined morphometric–anemometric approach for the calibration of logarithmic mean wind profiles in complex urban areas. The displacement height is set through a physically grounded morphometric formulation based on Jackson’s definition, while the roughness length is subsequently estimated from anemometric measurements. Urban canopy heterogeneity is accounted for by introducing a representative height derived from the building-height distribution and calibrated using numerical and experimental datasets. The proposed morphometric model reproduces reference displacement heights with mean multiplicative errors close to unity and coefficients of variation of approximately 17–18%. When embedded within the combined approach, the method reduces the sensitivity of roughness-parameter estimation to fitting assumptions. Application to LiDAR measurements demonstrates reduced uncertainty in the calibrated roughness parameters and improved agreement with theoretical logarithmic wind profiles. The proposed approach provides a physically consistent and practically applicable tool for site-specific characterisation of mean wind profiles in complex urban environments, with direct implications for reliable structural design.