2011 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
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Fig. 2. Mesoscale grids used in the mesoscale simulations.
Fig. 3. Microscale grids used in the microscale simulations.
B. Input Data
Inside the atmospheric boundary layer, the wind
regime is influenced directly by the topography and the
land cover. Thereby, in order to ensure continuity in the
wind resource data, the topography and land use data of
the following jurisdictions are incorporated in the model:
the provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla,
Phatthalung, Trang, Krabi, Surat Thani, Satun, Pattani,
Yala and Narathiwat provinces, along with an adjacent
section of Malaysia.
The topography data used to create the wind resource
maps is taken from two different sources. Firstly, the
topography data for the Thailand sections are taken from
the database of the Land Development Department,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Royal
Thai Government [14]. The corresponding topography
data consists of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) at a
resolution of 30 meters, where the ground elevations are
recorded in metres relative to Mean Sea Level (MSL),
based on the World Geodetic System WGS 1984
reference datum. Secondly, the topography data for the
adjacent section of Malaysia is taken from the database of
the Consortium for Spatial Information Consultative
Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR-
CSI) SRTM [15]. The corresponding topography data
consists of DEM at a resolution of 3 arc-seconds, where
the ground elevations are recorded in metres relative to
Mean Sea Level (MSL), based on the World Geodetic
System WGS 1984 reference datum. Before using the
topography data in the simulations, both databases are
merged, using ArcGIS, into one large raster file with
90 m by 90 m pixels encompassing the entire region
studied.
Fig. 4 shows the topography of Nakhon Si Thammarat
and Songkhla provinces after processing and ready for
use in the simulation. The provinces are divided by the
Phuket mountain range to the west and general lowlands
to the east. The highest point in southern Thailand is
Khao Luang Mountain, located in the Nakhon Si
Thammarat section of the Phuket mountain range at 1,780
m above sea level. Songkhla Province is also host to
Songkhla Lake, the largest natural lake in Thailand. The
shallow lake covers an area of 1,040 km
2
and has a north-
south extent of 78 km.
Fig. 4. Topography of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla provinces.
For its part, the land use data needed to create the wind
resource maps is taken from two different sources. For
the Thailand land use, the data was obtained from the
database of the Land Development Department, Ministry
of Natural Resources and Environment, Royal Thai
Government [14], while the Malaysia land use data
comes from the database of the European Commission
Global Environment Monitoring (GEM) Program [16].
