Abstract
A general understanding of the solar admittance and solar gains incident on the urban fabric is very useful to assess the potential implementation of renewable energies at the scale of the city. The authors propose a tool that uses Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data to automatically derive this information in a fast and accurate way with no need to refer to the construction of complex models of the urban layout. In particular, a complete methodology from the extraction of LIDAR data to the environmental analysis of urban models and the visualization of results is presented. Aim of the work is to establish a process to investigate digital urban models integrating cross-disciplinary competences, like remote sensing, GIS, image processing and urban and environmental studies. Toward this goal, working on several interfaces, tools and datasets was necessary to provide a consequent structure to the introduced methodology.
Case study for application was two districts in Geneva (a historical district, and a modern one) where LIDAR data are available. The use of a hybrid approach from raw LIDAR data and vectorial digital maps (GIS data) of roofs footprints derived from a 3-D urban model of the city of Geneva allowed to interpolate a 2.5-D urban surface model (DUSM) of roofs buildings, with a resolution grid of 0.50 by 0.50 metres. This step reveals itself as fundamental for processing the environmental analysis of the urban texture. In particular, the implemented tool calculates solar radiation and solar accessibility on buildings’ roofs, in order to investigate the potential for implementing photovoltaic panels.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Batty, M., Dodge, M., Jiang, B., Smith, A. (1999) Geographical information systems and urban design, Edited by Stillwell, J., Geertman, S., Openshaw, S., Geographical Information and Planning, Published by Berlin Springer, pp. 43–65.
Behan, A. (2000) On the matching accuracy of rasterised scanning laser altimetre data, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXIII, Part B2, pp. 75–82.
Beseničara, J., Trstenjak, B., Setnikac, D. (2008) Application of Geomatics in Photovoltaics, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXVII, Part B4, pp. 53–56.
Burchell, R., Downs, A., McCann, B., & Mukherji, S. (2005) Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development. Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press.
Carneiro, C. (2008) Communication and visualization of 3-D urban spatial data according to user requirements: case study of Geneva, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXVII, Part B2, pp. 631–636.
Compagnon, R. (2004) Solar and daylight availability in the urban fabric, Energy and building, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 321–328.
Duffie, J.A. (1980) Solar engineering of thermal processes, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Glenn, T., Watson, I. (1984) The Determination of View-Factorsin Urban Canyons. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, Vol. XXIII, pp. 329–335.
Gonçalves, G. (2006) Analysis of interpolation errors in urban digital surface models created from LIDAR data, Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Resources and Environment Sciences. Edited by M. Caetano and M. Painho, pp. 160–168.
Incropera, F., DeWitt, D. (1960) Introduction to heat transfer. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Iqbal, M. (1983) An Introduction to Solar Radiation, Academic Press, New York.
Jenks, M., Burton, E., Williams, K. (1996) The Compact City: A Sustainable Urban Form?, E & FN Spon, London, UK.
Jenks, M., Burton, E., Williams, K. (2000) Achieving Sustainable Urban Form, E & FN Spon, London, UK.
Kassner, R., Koppe, W., Schüttenberg, T., Bareth, G. (2008) Analysis of the Solar Potential of Roofs by Using Official LIDAR data, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXVII, Part B4, pp. 399–404.
Lemp, D. and Weidner, U. (2005) Improvements of roof surface classification using hyper-spectral and laser scanning data, Proceedings of the URBAN 2005 Workshop, Arizona, USA.
Menezes, A.S., Chasco, F.R., Garcia, B., Cabrejas, J., González-Audícana, M. (2005) Quality control in digital terrain models, Journal of Surveying Engineering, Vol. CXXXI, pp. 118–124.
Morello, E. and Ratti, C. (2009) SunScapes: ‘solar envelopes’ and the analysis of urban DEMs, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Vol. XXXIII, Part 1, pp. 26–34.
Miguet, F. and Groleau, D. (2002) A daylight simulation tool for urban and architectural spaces: Application to transmitted direct and diffuse light through glazing, Building and Environment, Vol. XXXVII (8/9), pp. 833–843.
Nielsen, J. (1993) Usability Engineering, Morgan kaufmann-Academic Press, London, United Kingdom.
Osaragi, T., Otani, I. (2007) Effects of ground surface relief in 3-D spatial analysis on residential environment, The European Information Society: Lecture notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Edited by Sara Irina Fabrikant and Monica Wachowicz, Published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 171–186.
PACER-Energies renouvelables (1996) Centrales photovoltaïques. Guide pour le dimensionnement et la réalisation de projets. A l’usage des bureaux d’ingénieurs, Office fédérale des questions conjoncturelles, Bern, Switzerland.
Quint, F. and Landes, S. (1996) Colour aerial image segmentation using a Bayesian homogeneity predicate and map knowledge. International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol. XXXI, Part B3.
Ratti, C. (2001) Urban analysis for environmental prediction, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, UK.
Ratti, C., Richens, P. (2004) Raster analysis of urban form, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol. XXXI.
Ratti, C., Baker, N., Steemers, K. (2005) Energy consumption and urban texture, Energy and Buildings, Vol. XXXVII (7), pp. 762–776.
Reichenbacher, T., Swienty, O. (2007) Attention-guiding geovisualization, Proceedings of the 10th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science, 8th-11thMay, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Robinson, D., Stone, A. (2005) A simplified radiosity algorithm for general urban radiation exchange, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, Vol. XXVI, No. 4, pp. 271–284.
Rogers, R. (1997) Cities for a small planet, Faber & Faber, London, UK.
Rylatt, M., Gadsden, S., Lomas, K. (2001) GIS-based decision support for solar energy planning in urban environments, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Vol. XXV, pp. 579–603.
Steed, A., Frecon, E., Pemberton, D., Smith, G. (1999) The London Travel Demonstrator, Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, December 20–22, pp. 50–57, ACM Press.
Souza, L., Rodrigues, D., Mendes, J. (2003) A 3D-GIS extension for sky view factors assessment in urban environment, The 8th International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management "CUPUM´03 Sendai", 27–29 May, Japan.
Takase, Y., Sho, N., Sone, A., Shimiya, K. (2003) Automatic generation of 3D city models and related applications, International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXIV-5/W10.
Teller, J. and Azar, S. (2001) TOWNSCOPE II—A computer system to support solar access decision making, Solar Energy, Vol. LXX, pp. 187–200.
Urban Task Force (1999) Towards an urban renaissance: final report of the Urban Task Force - Chaired by Lord Rogers of Riverside, E & FN Spon, London.
Vögtle, T. and Steinle, E. (2000) 3D modelling of buildings using laser scanning and spectral information, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXIII, Part B3.
Ward, G. J. (1994) The RADIANCE Lighting Simulation and Rendering System, Proceedings of the 21st annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, pp. 459–72.
Zinger, S., Nikolova, M., Roux, M., Maître, H. (2002) 3-D resampling for airborne laser data of urban areas, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXIV, Part 3B, pp. 55–61.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Carneiro, C., Morello, E., Desthieux, G. (2009). Assessment of Solar Irradiance on the Urban Fabric for the Production of Renewable Energy using LIDAR Data and Image Processing Techniques. In: Sester, M., Bernard, L., Paelke, V. (eds) Advances in GIScience. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00318-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00318-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00317-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00318-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)