Abstract. Located in the mountainous area of southwest China, the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration (CCUA) was rapidly urbanized in the last four decades, has led to a three-fold urban area expansion, thereby affecting the weather and climate. To investigate the urbanization effects on the thermal environment in the CCUA under the complex terrain, we conducted the simulations using the advanced Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF V4.1.5) model together with the combining land-use

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... and terrain conditions. We observed that the WRF model reproduces the general synoptic summer weather pattern, particularly for the thermal environment. It was shown that the expansion of the urban area changed the underlying surface's thermal properties, leading to the urban heat island effect, enhanced by the complex terrain further. The simulation with the future scenario shows that the implementation of idealized measures including returning farmland to forests, expanding rivers and lakes can reduce the urban heat island effect and regulate the urban ecosystem. Therefore, the urban planning policy can has potential to provide feasible suggestions to best manage the thermal environment of the future city toward improving the livelihood of the people in the environment.