Investigations of urban surface conditions for urban canopy model

The authors carried out several investigations to clarify the features of urban surface conditions in the urban canopy Model (UCM). The authors first conducted field investigations regarding the solar reflectance of urban surfaces. First, the wall reflectance and the proportion of the glazing area were measured in several urban areas. The relationship between the solar reflectance of road and traffic density is clarified based on the outdoor measurement and the field survey. It is also presented that the reflectance of the building rooftop varies significantly depending on building use and the influence of machinery in the area of the HVAC. The authors secondly investigated the height of released anthropogenic heat from the HVAC system based on a field survey and a database of HVAC systems provided by certain journals. From these investigations, it is presented that the type of HVAC system and the height of released anthropogenic heat vary with the building scale. Finally, an investigation of urban geometric figures was conducted using GIS data from Tokyo and Fukuoka in Japan. The vertical distribution features of both the roughness volume density and the building wall area density were classified according to the gross ratio of building volume. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.