Urban Microclimate and Energy Modeling: A Review of Integration Approaches
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Limitations of Simulating Urban Microclimate Impacts
1.2. Overall Aim of This Review
- Examine the influence of urban form on microclimates, considering parameters such as density, vegetation, and material properties.
- Analyze how urban microclimates impact building energy performance, with a focus on atmospheric and non-atmospheric heat exchanges.
- Evaluate the strengths and limitations of current BEM-UMM integration approaches, identifying computational challenges and accuracy concerns.
2. Methodology of the Review
- The impacts of urban form on microclimate;
- The influence of urban form and microclimate on building energy performance, including inbuilt mechanisms within BEM tools;
- The advantages and limitations of state-of-the-art urban microclimate-integrated BEM approaches.
- Screening I: Reviewing titles and abstracts to identify relevant studies.
- Screening II: Conducting an in-depth analysis of selected articles, focusing on methodologies used to model heat exchanges between buildings and urban microclimates. Studies providing insights across multiple review stages were prioritized.
- Section 3 evaluates the impacts of urban form on microclimate, emphasizing non-linear interactions and the UMM tools used for their simulation.
- Section 4 examines the influence of urban form and microclimate on building energy performance, along with BEM tool capabilities and challenges.
- Section 5 reviews existing integrated modeling approaches, assessing their effectiveness and limitations.
- Section 6 synthesizes key insights and highlights gaps that must be addressed for advancing urban microclimate-integrated BEM approaches.
3. Impacts of Urban Form on Microclimate
3.1. Effects of Buildings on Microclimate
3.2. Effects of Greenery and Water Bodies on Microclimate
3.3. Effects of Pavements and Roads on Microclimate
3.4. Urban Microclimate Modeling
4. Impacts of Urban Form and Microclimate
4.1. Convective Heat Exchange Modeling
4.2. Discharge Heat Exchange Modeling
4.3. Radiative Heat Exchange Modeling
5. Review of Existing Integrated Modeling Approaches
5.1. Methods for Modeling Microclimate-Driven Atmospheric Exchanges
Ref. | UMM Tools/Monitoring | BEM | DBT | DPT | RH | AH | WS | WD | GHR | DNR | CHTC | WPC | RoWD | MoHTCs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[81] | ANSYS Fluent | IDA ICE | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||
[85] | CAT | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | |||||||||
[86] | CFD | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
[87] | x | x | ||||||||||||
[88] | TRNSYS | x | x | x | ||||||||||
[89] | x | x | x | |||||||||||
[90] | ENVI-met | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
[91] | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
[92] | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
[93] | Additional information is required | |||||||||||||
[94] | Additional information is required | |||||||||||||
[95] | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
[96] | IES-VE | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
[30] | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
[80] | ENVI-met + Matlab + Meteonorm | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
[78] | ENVI-met and UWG | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
[97] | GIS-based | x | x | x | ||||||||||
[98] | Monitoring | TRNSYS | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
[79] | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
[99] | IES-VE | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
[100] | DeST | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
[101] | OASUS | IDA ICE | x | x | x | |||||||||
[102] | OpenFOAM | EnergyPlus | x | x | x | x | ||||||||
[103] | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
[82] | x | x | Additional information is needed | |||||||||||
[83] | x | x | ||||||||||||
[71] | x | x | ||||||||||||
[104] | OpenFOAM + Lumped thermal models | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||
[105] | Standards & published models | TRNSYS | x |
5.2. Methods for Modeling Non-Atmospheric Heat Exchanges from Urban Form
6. Conclusions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
BEM | Building Energy Modeling |
CFD | Computational Fluid Dynamics |
CHTC | Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient |
DPT | Dew Point Temperature |
DBT | Dry Bulb Temperature |
DNR | Direct Normal Radiation |
GHR | Global Horizontal Radiation |
MoHTC | Modification of Heat Transfer Coefficients |
RHTC | Radiative Heat Transfer Coefficient |
RoWD | Revision of Weather File Data |
UBEM | Urban Building Energy Modeling |
UHI | Urban Heat Island |
UMM | Urban Microclimate Modeling |
WPC | Wind Pressure Coefficient |
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Design Metric | Definition |
---|---|
3D Shape Index | Ratio of a building’s surface area to the minimum surface area of the most compact sphere. |
Building Density | Proportion of the total site area occupied by buildings. |
Building Surface Coverage | Ratio of a building’s outer surface area to the ground area it covers. |
Construction View Index | Percentage of an image occupied by structures above ground level. |
Dimension of 3D Fractal | Density and closeness of buildings within an urban area. |
Drag Coefficient | Reduction in energy within a moving fluid due to the shape and structure of encountered objects. |
Floor-to-Area Ratio | Ratio of a building’s total floor area to the land size upon which it is built. |
Green Coverage Rate | Fraction of an area occupied by green spaces. |
Green Plot Ratio | Ratio comparing the total area covered by greenery to the overall site area. |
Green View Index | Percentage of an image occupied by green spaces or vegetation. |
Impervious Ground Surface | Ratio of impervious surfaces to the entire site area. |
Road and Pavement View Index | Percentage of an image covered by roads and pavements. |
Shape Coefficient | Ratio of a building’s external surface area to its internal volume. |
Sinuous Configuration | Regular pattern of building placement along the XY-axis. |
Sky View Factor | Degree of openness or exposure of a surface to the sky. |
Street Entry-Type Streets | Ratios of height to width and their orientations along street interfaces. |
Surface Area Ratio | Fraction of a building’s exterior surface exposed to open air. |
Weighted Average Height | Central tendency of building heights within an area, considering the significance of each building’s height. |
Refs. | UMM Tools | BEM | Surrounding Buildings | Ground (Pervious & Impervious) | Grass |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
[106] | Meteonorm (Grass surface temperature) | CitySim | x | x | x |
[82] | - | EnergyPlus | Additional information is required | ||
[83] | - | ||||
[107] | - | x | x | ||
[90] | ENVI-met | x | x | x | |
[104] | Lumped thermal models | x | x | ||
[74] | - | TRNSYS | x | x | |
[108] | - | x | |||
[105] | - | x | |||
[88] | - | x | |||
[59] | - | x | |||
[89] | CitySim (buildings and sky) | x |
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Manapragada, N.V.S.K.; Natanian, J. Urban Microclimate and Energy Modeling: A Review of Integration Approaches. Sustainability 2025, 17, 3025. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073025
Manapragada NVSK, Natanian J. Urban Microclimate and Energy Modeling: A Review of Integration Approaches. Sustainability. 2025; 17(7):3025. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073025
Chicago/Turabian StyleManapragada, Naga Venkata Sai Kumar, and Jonathan Natanian. 2025. "Urban Microclimate and Energy Modeling: A Review of Integration Approaches" Sustainability 17, no. 7: 3025. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073025
APA StyleManapragada, N. V. S. K., & Natanian, J. (2025). Urban Microclimate and Energy Modeling: A Review of Integration Approaches. Sustainability, 17(7), 3025. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073025