Estimation of urban temperature and humidity using a lumped parameter model coupled with an EnergyPlus model

A new validation protocol for an urban microclimate model based on temperature measurements in a Central European city

“…When a metric is used for evaluating the accuracy of the urban microclimate model, the uncertainty associated with parameters is rarely considered. Most studies compute (or only illustrate) the similarity between estimates and measurements via several discrete cases [8,9,10,12,13]. Some validation protocols compare measurements to estimates of urban temperature in time [6,9,10], while others analyze dissimilarities between measured and estimated distributions [7,8,11,12].…”

“…The proposed validation method is essentially heat flux based and therefore can only be applied to a specific kind of urban microclimate model following the scheme defined by Masson [16]. Among all urban temperature based validation protocols, a few use metrics to determine how close their approximations are to measurements [8,13,14]. When a metric is used for evaluating the accuracy of the urban microclimate model, the uncertainty associated with parameters is rarely considered.…”

“…An urban canopy model aims at estimating weather conditions at the urban canopy layer taking into consideration climatic conditions at urban boundary layer, heat fluxes from building sur-A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t faces, and anthropogenic heat releases. Urban boundary layer conditions can be defined by measurements [8] or approximated by a mesoscale model [6,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Urban canopy models can be divided in two categories: single-layer and multi-layer urban canopy models.…”

“…Urban canopy models can be divided in two categories: single-layer and multi-layer urban canopy models. While multi-layer urban canopy models consider that urban temperatures can vary as function of height [6,9,10,12,13,15], single-layer urban canopy models assume that the urban canyon can be modeled as a homogeneous volume with uniform temperature [7,8,11,16,17]. Weather conditions estimated by an urban canopy model are then defined as boundary conditions of the reference building (i.e.…”

“…Finally, heat releases caused by heating/cooling are calculated based on specifications of the heating, ventilation, and airconditioning (HVAC) system. Urban canopy models might be coupled with either a simplified [6,9,10,12,13,15,17,18] or a detailed [7,8] building energy model.…”