Advancing Urban Building Energy Models for Evaluation of Overheating Risks. 01/11/2024 - 31/10/2026

Abstract

City dwellers face a higher risk of indoor overheating due to the combined impacts of global warming and urban heat island effect. Climate-resilient buildings help protect occupants from rising temperatures. Urban building energy models (UBEMs) offer insights into urban energy systems, facilitating urban energy plans and policy interventions. However, current UBEM approaches lack suitability for assessing indoor conditions under extreme climate conditions, revealing a knowledge gap for developing urban adaptation and mitigation strategies. This research presents a proof-of-concept toolchain for generating UBEMs from Geographic Information System (GIS) data, applicable for indoor overheating risk evaluation. The study performs building simulations and sensitivity analyses to identify impactful factors in thermal comfort. The study develops novel methods to generate detailed multi-zone building simulation models and reviews the impact of varying thermal zone resolutions in buildings. Also, influencing external elements affecting heat balances in buildings such as trees and longwave radiation are modelled, to quantify their influence on overheating. Based on the parametric analyses, the toolchain for UBEMs integrates the identified critical factors in simulating indoor comfort conditions. This toolchain is employed in developing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for a district in Antwerp, considering both current and future scenarios of climate and building stock.

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Project type(s)

  • Research Project