David Moreno

The validated influence of urban biophysical structure on environmental processes within urban areas has heightened the emphasis on studies examining morphological patterns to determine precise locations and underlying causes of urban climate conditions. The present study aims to characterise morphological patterns describing the distribution of Land Surface Temperature (LST) based on a prior classification of biophysical variables, including urban density (building intensity and average height), surface characteristics, shortwave solar radiation (broadband albedo), and seasonal variations in vegetation cover (high, medium, and low levels), retrieved from multisource datasets. To describe the distribution of LST, the variables were calculated, classified, and subsequently, analysed individually and collectively concerning winter and summer LST values applied in an urban neighbourhood in Madrid, Spain. The results from the analytical approaches (observation, correlations, and multiple regressions) were compared to define the morphological patterns. The selection of areas resulting from the morphological patterns with the most unfavourable LST values showed agreement of up to 89% in summer and up to 70% for winter, demonstrating the feasibility of the methods applied to identify priority areas for intervention by season. Notably, low and high vegetation levels emerged as pivotal biophysical characteristics influencing LST distribution compared to the other characteristics, emphasising the significance of integrating detailed seasonal vegetation variations in urban analyses.

The excessive use of energy in buildings due to increased populations and economic development leads to more greenhouse gas emissions, which affect climate change and global warming. Changes in prevailing outdoor weather conditions significantly affect the energy systems of buildings through increased cooling and decreased heating. In this paper, 30 years of data of dry and wet bulb temperatures (1990–2020) with a time interval of 3 h were considered in order to estimate the climatic outdoor design conditions in the cities of Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio in the state of Texas. The results suggest that the dry bulb temperature (DBT) had significantly higher increases in Dallas–Fort Worth (2.37 °C) than the wet bulb temperature (WBT) in Houston (4.1 °C) during the study period. Furthermore, this study analyzed the effects of climate change on cooling degree hours (CDH) and heating degree hours (HDH) and the results suggest the most significant drop in HDH in Dallas–Fort Worth with a maximum CDH fluctuation as compared to other two cities. The effect of climate change on the performance of cooling systems is also investigated in this study via direct evaporative coolers (DECs) and direct-indirect evaporative coolers (IDEC), which do not perform well in the selected cities. In contrast, absorption system (Abs) and vapor compression (VC) systems show an increase in the number of additional loads. The second part of this study is related to the future projection using the ARIMA model, which suggests that DBT would rise significantly in Houston (from 37.18 °C to 37.56 °C) and Dallas–Fort Worth (39.1 °C to 39.57 °C) while diminishing in San Antonio (from 34.81 °C to 33.95 °C) from 2020 to 2030. In contrast, WBT will experience an upward trend in Houston (from 36.06 °C to 37.71 °C) and Dallas–Fort Worth (from 31.32 °C to 31.38 °C) and a downward trend in San Antonio (from 32.43 °C to 31.97 °C) during 2020–2030. Additionally, the future performance prediction of Abs and VC systems is also performed, which reveals that the amount of additional load required is significantly higher in 2030 compared to 2020 and is more prominent in Houston. Conversely, amount of additional load required for cooling systems in San Antonio shows a decreasing trend in 2030.

This study investigates the diurnal, seasonal, monthly and temporal variation of land surface temperature (LST) and surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) over the Isfahan metropolitan area, Iran, during 2003–2019 using MODIS data. It also examines the driving factors of SUHII like cropland, built-up areas (BI), the urban–rural difference in enhanced vegetation index (ΔEVI), evapotranspiration (ΔET), and white sky albedo (ΔWSA). The results reveal the presence of urban cool islands during the daytime and urban heat islands at night. The maximum SUHII was observed at 22:30 p.m., while the minimum was at 10:30 a.m. The summer months (June to September) show higher SUHII compared to the winter months (February to May). The daytime SUHII demonstrates a robust positive correlation with cropland and ΔWSA, and a negative correlation with ΔET, ΔEVI, and BI. The nighttime SUHII displays a negative correlation with ΔET and ΔEVI.

Perforated solar screens (PSS) are important to consider in building façade design because of their contribution to sustainability through daylighting. PSS façade design requires the consideration of many potential design alternatives that involve a large number of simulations. This paper presents a methodology in which the orthogonal and listing methods are integrated to predict a set of optimum PSS design variables to enhance the daylight availability in office buildings located in Seville, Spain. An orthogonal array was selected to perform a transverse comparison of the simulation factors mean effects and to find their statistical significance. Then, a standard level was fixed and used for further detailed analysis of a greater number of factor levels, measuring their daylighting contributions. The main advantage of the integrated method is the reduction of the number of simulations from 720 to 32, so the model could save considerable time and would help designers make early-design-stage decisions. With the optimization, the actual daylit area was increased by 29–57% and the overlit area was reduced by 36–57% relative to reference models with no PSS.

In this paper, daylighting and thermal analysis are carried out in synergy to ensure the best overall performance of perforated solar screens (PSS) used on fully glazed offices facing towards South, East, West and North, placed in Seville. The study has been conceived by applying multiple orthogonal arrays to account oriented transverse comparisons of several PSS design variables, with respect to their impact on the Daylight Availability (DAv) and the annual energy demand (lighting plus cooling and heating). Daylighting and irradiation calculations are carried out with DIVA-for-Grasshopper. The irradiation simulations are needed for simplifying the PSS complex geometries in order to perform thermal calculations with EnergyPlus. The results revealed that the use of PSS on façades is effective for enhancing DAv at the four orientations, in terms of the actual fully daylit area and the useful daylight illuminances. In comparison with fully and partly glazed façades, PSS increased the electrical lighting use but they considerably decreased the cooling energy use. Since lighting resulted lower and less influencing than cooling, PSS effectively reduced the total annual energy consumption. Therefore, optimizing daylighting through PSS can lead to low energy projects.

The current European energy policies have an influence on the need to rehabilitate the housing stock in order to meet the objectives of the European Union. Most of this housing stock was built without any type of energy regulation in adverse technical and economic conditions and thus is now energetically obsolete. The major rehabilitation effort required must be approached through actions based on previous quantitative energy knowledge of the existing buildings in order to guarantee the efficiency of energy-retrofitted solutions. This assessment can be carried out through monitoring dwellings conditioned by use patterns; through simulation programs, which do not usually offer faithful representations of energy conditions; or by using test cells, which allow us to evaluate a controlled indoor environment without the influence of users. The objective of this paper is to present the design and performance of test cells as an experimental method for vertical facade analysis in order to tackle the problem of retrofitting residential buildings in a Mediterranean climate, taking into account energy and environment. With this equipment, efficiency and energy savings, as well as illumination and interior air quality, can be simultaneously and comprehensively evaluated.