The Use of Digital 3-D Information to Assess Urban Environmental Quality Indicators

This paper anticipates the use of 3-D data for the environmental analysis of cities, aiming to provide useful tools for urban designers. The extraction of urban environmental quality (UEQ) indicators from 3-D information using innovative tools is presented. We will introduce our recent research about the implementation of computational tools for the analysis, evaluation and design of the urban space and compare results that can be obtained with different data sources. In particular, we are going to present the advantages of urban models generated from LiDAR data, by showing the case-study analysis of the measurement and quantification of urban vegetation indicators. Results show that the limitation to solar accessibility on roofs is not relevant for the case-study area. Moreover, a set of environmental and morphological indicators could inform urban designers for decision making processes about the distribution of vegetation inside the urban fabric.