Infrared thermography in the built environment: A multi-scale review

Miguel Martin, Adrian Chong, Filip Biljecki and Clayton Miller

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2022, vol. 165, issue C

Abstract: The paper presents a review on major contributions in infrared thermography to study the built environment at multiple scales. To elaborate the review, hundreds of studies conducted between the 1980s and 2020s were first selected based on their relevance to the scope. Afterward, the most relevant contributions were classified and chronologically sorted. From the classification, it is observed that most reviewed studies were conducted to evaluate the thermal performance of buildings or detect their defects using images collected by an infrared camera. At the same time, a considerable number of studies used thermal images obtained by a satellite to observe the urban heat island effect. Despite the important number of contributions in infrared thermography at multiple scales of the built environment, three main research gaps or opportunities can be identified in the literature. First, it would be possible to perform a more detailed analysis of urban heat fluxes using thermal images collected at multiple scales. Then, thermal images collected by a mounted or handheld infrared camera could be used to create building energy models. Finally, better visualization tools would be developed to monitor a city’s energy use and improve its sustainability if thermal images were integrated into Internet-of-Things and digital twin platforms.

Keywords: Infrared thermography; Urban heat island effect; Sustainable urban development; Building energy performance; Satellites; Remote sensing; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Thermal imaging cameras (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032122004397
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:165:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122004397

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112540

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().