A Sensitivity Study Relating to Local Urban Climate Modelling within the Built Environment. (2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aktas, Yasemin Didem; Stocker, Jenny; Carruthers, David; Hunt, Julian
• Is Part Of: Procedia engineering. Volume 198(2017)
• Page Start: 589
• Page End: 599
• Publication Date: 2017
• Subjects: land-use -- urban heat island -- thermal admittance -- ADMS-Urban; Engineering -- Congresses; Engineering -- Periodicals; Engineering; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 620.005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.113
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1877-7058

Abstract

Abstract: The rapid increase in urban populations during the last century, together with the threat of climate change has motivated research focusing on the impact of land-use on urban climates. High-resolution neighbourhood-scale modelling tools developed to account for the complex three-dimensional surfaces and volumes within an urban area are able to predict temperature perturbations over an urban domain with reference to varying land-use. However, land-use classes chosen to model the urban landscape often reflect the function, rather than the material, and hence overlook different building materials that compose the built environment. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that in order to robustly assess local climate variations, it is important to use representative land-use parameters that account for materials that form the urban landscape, instead of functions. The response of a high-resolution local climate model to an improved parameterization of the built environment is investigated using the local-scale urban climate modelling tool, ADMS-Urban. In this study, a more elaborate set of land-use classes is collated which distinguishes between different building materials that have varying thermal parameters. A novel approach to calculating the thermal admittance is proposed, reflecting different building materials used for the building facades and the roofs. This study demonstrates that refining model input parameters to correctly represent various construction materials used within the urban tissue, as well as the proposed, advanced method for calculating thermal admittance leads to significant temperature differences compared to when broad assumptions are used, especially under low wind conditions common in equatorial cities. Validation studies are planned that will demonstrate the accuracy of model predictions in comparison to observed temperature data in order to identify threshold criteria required to produce realistic urban climate predictions. Following this example of best practice, the existing modelling tools can reliably be used for the simulation of complex future scenarios and for a robust assessment of the relevant health implications.