Solar Access Assessment in Dense Urban Environments: The Effect of Intersections in an Urban Canyon

Elena Garcia-Nevado, Anna Pages-Ramon and Helena Coch
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Elena Garcia-Nevado: Architecture & Energy, School of Architecture of Barcelona, UPC, Av. Diagonal, 649, 7th floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Anna Pages-Ramon: Architecture & Energy, School of Architecture of Barcelona, UPC, Av. Diagonal, 649, 7th floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Helena Coch: Architecture & Energy, School of Architecture of Barcelona, UPC, Av. Diagonal, 649, 7th floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: The urban canyon model has been recurrently used as a basis for many solar access studies. However, its conception as endless structures disregards the effect of street intersections, despite being characteristic elements of urban fabrics. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of street discontinuities on solar access over building façades. The potential of crossings to increase the available radiation has been assessed through computer simulations in dense urban environments in a Mediterranean location. For the cases studied, results show that local effects of an intersection almost disappear beyond a speci?c distance for each aspect ratio, which can be helpful to determine the suitable level of detail for solar analyses at an urban fabric scale.

Keywords: urban morphology; solar access; direct radiation; street intersections; Mediterranean environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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