Integrating microclimate modelling with building energy simulation and solar photovoltaic potential estimation: The parametric analysis and optimization of urban design

Key urban design factors of the meteorological condition, vegetation, urban block form, transportation and building design as well as their interaction need to be explored to regulate urban microclimate, building energy efficiency, and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation for enhancing the overall building/urban energy performance. This study first incorporates the High Dimensional Model Representation (HDMR), Sobol sampling and bootstrapping strategy to extract the most important factors for microclimate modelling. Then, a parametric modelling and design optimization framework is proposed to improve the overall building energy performance (i.e. building energy consumption and PV power generation) while mitigating local climate change (i.e. urban heat island effect) by exploring various urban block form designs. The integrated urban performance optimization platform is further demonstrated in a high-density district in Hong Kong. The research results demonstrate a significant correlation between building density (BD), building height (BH), photovoltaic power generation, and the urban heat island effect. Building height shows a strong positive correlation with accumulated urban heat island intensity (AUHII) (R2 = 0.4512) and photovoltaic power generation (R2 = 0.6720). Building energy consumption is found to be correlated with building density, with a correlation coefficient of 0.2052, but it is barely influenced by building height. From clustering analyses, optimal urban block designs are determined for different optimization objectives. The findings presented in this paper have important indication for sustainable urban form design.