Projections of design implications on energy performance of future cities: A case study from Vienna

Abstract This paper presents the results of a research project involving a new urban development project in the city of Vienna. Given the expected long life-cycle of this project, the developers requested scientifically-based information concerning the projected extent of the microclimatic changes in the development area and their potential ramifications for open urban spaces and the planned buildings’ energy and thermal performance. To address this inquiry, the first stage of the research involved capturing both the current state and future projections of the climatic conditions of the area. As a next step building performance simulation models were used to evaluate alternative building designs (specifically various surface and layout design options and degrees of vegetation) in view of their mitigation effectiveness vis-a-vis climate change projections. The simulated implications of the assumed climate change trend suggest that the future heating loads will be lower, whereas cooling loads will significantly increase. The results help providing qualified estimations of the extent to which certain surface and building design features influence future cooling and heating loads. Furthermore results show the importance of taking microclimatic conditions of the relevant area into account.

[1]  H. Mayer,et al.  Numerical study on the effects of aspect ratio and orientation of an urban street canyon on outdoor thermal comfort in hot and dry climate , 2006 .

[2]  A. Okeil.  A holistic approach to energy efficient building forms , 2010 .

[3]  A. Hense,et al.  The Regional Climate Model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) , 2008 .

[4]  D. Coley,et al.  The implications of a changing climate for buildings , 2012 .

[5]  René Laprise,et al.  Regional climate modelling , 2008, J. Comput. Phys..

[6]  F. Giorgi,et al.  Approaches to the simulation of regional climate change: A review , 1991 .

[7]  Rajagopalan Priyadarsini,et al.  Urban Heat Island and its Impact on Building Energy Consumption , 2009 .

[8]  M. Kummert,et al.  Designing net-zero energy buildings for the future climate, not for the past , 2012 .

[9]  J. Michalsky,et al.  All-weather model for sky luminance distribution—Preliminary configuration and validation , 1993 .

[10]  D. Robinson,et al.  A simplified radiosity algorithm for general urban radiation exchange , 2005 .

[11]  Wolfgang Loibl.  Reclip:century - a project conducting 21st century regional climate simulation runs focussing on the Greater Alpine Region , 2010 .

[12]  H. Taha.  Urban climates and heat islands: albedo, evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic heat , 1997 .

[13]  Zhiyang Shi,et al.  Analyzing the effect of the longwave emissivity and solar reflectance of building envelopes on energy-saving in buildings in various climates , 2011 .

[14]  Drury B. Crawley,et al.  Estimating the impacts of climate change and urbanization on building performance , 2008 .

[15]  Darren Robinson,et al.  Computer Modelling for Sustainable Urban Design: Physical Principles, Methods and Applications , 2011 .

[16]  C. Rosenzweig,et al.  Characterizing the urban heat island in current and future climates in New Jersey , 2005 .

[17]  G. Levermore,et al.  Future energy demand for public buildings in the context of climate change for Burkina Faso , 2012 .

[18]  Vincent R. Gray.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers , 2007 .