An Integrated Spatial Analysis Computer Environment for Urban-Building Energy in Cities

Yu Sun, Elisabete A. Silva, Wei Tian, Ruchi Choudhary and Hong Leng
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Yu Sun: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin 150000, China
Elisabete A. Silva: Department of Land Economy, Cambridge University, 19 Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EP, UK
Wei Tian: Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300222, China
Ruchi Choudhary: Department of Engineering, Cambridge University, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
Hong Leng: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin 150000, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: In this paper, we developed a new integrated analysis environment in order to thoroughly analyses urban-building energy patterns, named IUBEA (integrated urban building energy analysis), which focuses on energy modeling and analysis of a city’s building stock to support district or city-scale efficiency programs. It is argued that cities and towns account for more than two-thirds of world energy consumption. Thus, this paper explores techniques to integrate a spatial analysis environment in the field of urban building energy assessment in cites to make full use of current spatial data relevant to urban-building energy consumption and energy efficiency policies. We illustrate how multi-scale sampling and analysis for energy consumption and simulate the energy-saving scenarios by taking as an example of Greater London. In the final part, is an application of an agent-based model (ABM) in IUBEA regarding behavioral and economic characteristics of building stocks in the context of building energy efficiency. This paper first describes the basic concept for this integrated spatial analysis environment IUBEA. Then, this paper discusses the main functions for this new environment in detail. The research serves a new paradigm of the multi-scale integrated analysis that can lead to an efficient energy model, which contributes the body of knowledge of energy modeling beyond the single building scale. Findings also proved that ABM is a feasible tool to tackle intellectual challenges in energy modeling. The final adoption example of Greater London demonstrated that the integrated analysis environment as a feasible tool for building energy consumption have unique advantages and wide applicability.

Keywords: integrated spatial analysis; building energy efficiency; multi-resolution analysis; scenario analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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