https://escholarship.org/content/qt19d5v90s/qt19d5v90s.pdf?t=q1kuxx

Ten questions on urban building energy modeling

UMEP (Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor), a city-based climate service tool, combines models and tools essential for climate simulations. Applications are presented to illustrate UMEP's potential in the identification of heat waves and cold waves; the impact of green infrastructure on runoff; the effects of buildings on human thermal stress; solar energy production; and the impact of human activities on heat emissions. UMEP has broad utility for applications related to outdoor thermal comfort, wind, urban energy consumption and climate change mitigation. It includes tools to enable users to input atmospheric and surface data from multiple sources, to characterise the urban environment, to prepare meteorological data for use in cities, to undertake simulations and consider scenarios, and to compare and visualise different combinations of climate indicators. An open-source tool, UMEP is designed to be easily updated as new data and tools are developed, and to be accessible to researchers, decision-makers and practitioners. A GIS-based climate planning tool for researcher and practitioners is presented.UMEP has broad utility for applications related to e.g. climate change mitigation.Applications are presented to illustrate UMEP's potential.

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor (UMEP)

The current climate change is calling for a drastic reduction of energy demand as well as of greenhouse gases. Besides this, cities also need to adapt to face the challenges related to climate change. Cities, with their complex urban texture and fabric, can be represented as a diverse ecosystem that does not have a clear and defined boundary. Multiple software tools that have been developed, in recent years, for assessment of urban climate, building energy demand, the outdoor thermal comfort and the energy systems. In this review, we, however, noted that these tools often address only one or two of these urban planning aspects. There is nonetheless an intricate link between them. For instance, the outdoor comfort assessment has shown that there is a strong link between biometeorology and architecture and urban climate. Additionally, to address the challenges of the energy transition, there will be a convergence of the energy needs in the future with an energy nexus regrouping the energy demand of urban areas. It is also highlighted that the uncertainty related to future climatic data makes urban adaptation and mitigation strategies complex to implement and to design given the lack of a comprehensive framework. We thus conclude by suggesting the need for a holistic interface to take into account this multi-dimensional problem. With the help of such a platform, a positive loop in urban design can be initiated leading to the development of low carbon cities and/or with the use of blue and green infrastructure to have a positive impact on the mitigation and adaptation strategies.

/pdf/a-review-of-assessment-methods-for-the-urban-environment-and-49jyvwhutm.pdf

A review of assessment methods for the urban environment and its energy sustainability to guarantee climate adaptation of future cities

https://escholarship.org/content/qt9p9296kc/qt9p9296kc.pdf?t=qt915i

Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) tools: A state-of-the-art review of bottom-up physics-based approaches

Nine methods to determine local-scale aerodynamic roughness length $$(z_{0})$$
 and zero-plane displacement $$(z_{d})$$
 are compared at three sites (within 60 m of each other) in London, UK. Methods include three anemometric (single-level high frequency observations), six morphometric (surface geometry) and one reference-based approach (look-up tables). A footprint model is used with the morphometric methods in an iterative procedure. The results are insensitive to the initial $$z_{d}$$
 and $$z_{0}$$
 estimates. Across the three sites, $$z_{d}$$
 varies between 5 and 45 m depending upon the method used. Morphometric methods that incorporate roughness-element height variability agree better with anemometric methods, indicating $$z_{d}$$
 is consistently greater than the local mean building height. Depending upon method and wind direction, $$z_{0}$$
 varies between 0.1 and 5 m with morphometric $$z_{0}$$
 consistently being 2–3 m larger than the anemometric $$z_{0}$$
 . No morphometric method consistently resembles the anemometric methods. Wind-speed profiles observed with Doppler lidar provide additional data with which to assess the methods. Locally determined roughness parameters are used to extrapolate wind-speed profiles to a height roughly 200 m above the canopy. Wind-speed profiles extrapolated based on morphometric methods that account for roughness-element height variability are most similar to observations. The extent of the modelled source area for measurements varies by up to a factor of three, depending upon the morphometric method used to determine $$z_{d}$$
 and $$z_{0}$$
 .

/pdf/evaluation-of-urban-local-scale-aerodynamic-parameters-2ypypa1pi2.pdf

Evaluation of Urban Local-Scale Aerodynamic Parameters: Implications for the Vertical Profile of Wind Speed and for Source Areas

Solar energy on building envelopes - 3D modelling in a 2D environment

Solar Energy from Existing Structures

The city based climate service tool UMEP (Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor) is a coupled modelling system that combines models essential for urban climate processes and is developed as an extensive QGIS plugin. An application is presented to illustrate its potential, specifically of the identification of heat waves and cold waves in cities. The tool has broad utility for applications related to outdoor thermal comfort, urban energy consumption, climate change mitigation etc. It includes tools to: enable users to input atmospheric and surface data from multiple sources, prepare meteorological data for use in urban areas, undertake simulations and consider scenarios, and compare and visualize different combinations of climate indicators. ∗Corresponding author Email address: fredrikl@gvc.gu.se (Fredrik Lindberg) Submitted to FOSS4G 2017 Conference Proceedings, Boston, USA. September 20, 2017 FOSS4G 2017 Academic Program Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor - an extensive tool for climate services in urban areas

Digital tools are being developed for involving stakeholders in urban planning and transformation processes. One challenge is how to visualize and act upon all parameters that are relevant for dealing with complex plan-ning problems, such as environmental factors. Dialogue tools involving vis-ualization can bridge the distance between planners and citizens. This paper focuses on the problem of representing invisible environmental parameters affecting the urban climate such as wind, solar radiation, air pollution and noise, in a city model. The aim of the paper is to discuss challenges for rep-resenting and communicating environmental data in city models. In this pa-per, we have accounted for literature studies; our own conceptual modelling and prototype studies in three projects; as well as a survey with 16 urban planners. We conclude with defining design criteria for dialogue tools cre-ating a comprehensible base for communication in urban transformation processes.

Per Jonsson

Papers

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor (UMEP)

Solar energy on building envelopes - 3D modelling in a 2D environment

Solar Energy from Existing Structures

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor - an extensive tool for climate services in urban areas

Visualizing environmental data for pedestrian comfort analysis in urban planning processes