Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
Koppen’s merits and limitations, climate classification, radiation balance and factor
Koppen’s merits and limitations, climate classification, radiation balance, and factor
Koppen classification depends on the mean monthly values of temperature and precipitation. By these statistics, the most powerful factor of precipitation can only be determined approximately, rather than measured perfectly.
Koppen does not take information such weather elements as winds, precipitation intensity, amount of cloudiness, and daily temperature extremes only for the reason of making his classification widely and easy.
The two effective functional weather elements that show the effects of climatic controls more clearly than any other weather elements are the temperature and precipitation.
These elements affect other aspects of our physical environment more directly than any other element. Obviously, the system of classification devised by Koppen is directly related to those aspects of the environment which are clearly visible to us.
This system is not universally applicable. It utilizes, for example, only the data or mean monthly temperature and precipitation. There is no provision for variations in the strength or constancy of winds, temperature extremes, precipitation intensity and range, amount of cloud cover, or the net radiation balance. Its greatest inadequacies perhaps lie in its application to humid dry boundaries, and it should not be considered for land management and planning purposes, where more precise and varied factors should be utilized.