ANN-Based Method for Urban Canopy Temperature Prediction and Building Energy Simulation with Urban Heat Island Effect in Consideration

The process of urbanization resulting from population growth is causing a transformation of natural landscapes into built environments, and contributing to a significant rise in air and surface temperatures in urban areas, resulting in what is known as the urban heat island (UHI). Ignoring the UHI effect and use of weather data from open fields and airport locations for energy and thermal comfort analysis can lead to over- and underestimation of heating and cooling loads, improper sizing of equipment, inefficiencies in the mechanical systems operation, and occupants' thermal discomfort. There is a need for computationally efficient urban canopy temperature prediction models that account for the urban morphology and characteristics of the study area. This paper presents the development and application of an artificial neural network (ANN)-based method for generating hourly urban canopy temperature and local wind speed for energy simulation. It was used to predict the urban canopy temperature of a neighborhood in downtown Vancouver and the resulting building energy consumption and indoor temperature in a typical building in the area. The results showed that the UHI effect increased the total cooling energy demand by 23% and decreased the total heating energy consumption by 29%, resulting in an overall negative effect on the total energy demand of the building, which was 18% higher in the urban area. The UHI effect also increased the number of hours of indoor temperature above the cooling set point by 7.6%. The methodology can be applied to determine the urban canopy temperature of neighborhoods in different climate zones and determine the varying urban heat island effects associated with the locations.