Cool By Design
SOLFD: Extending SOLWEIG for Urban Design Decision Making on Outdoor Thermal Comfort
J.A. Monahan (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Clara Garcia Sanchez – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Data Science)
H. Ledoux – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Data Science)
E. Verbree – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Digital Technologies)
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Abstract
As
urbanization and climate change intensify, managing the urban microclimate
becomes increasingly challenging, affecting outdoor thermal comfort. The
practical integration of urban microclimate research into urban design remains
limited, in part due to the complexity and inaccessibility of existing tools.
To support early-stage, climate-sensitive urban design at the neighbourhood
scale, I present SOLWEIG For Design (SOLFD): a computation framework that
builds on the existing SOLWEIG tool. SOLFD enables urban designers to visualize
current microclimatic conditions and assess the impact of design interventions
on outdoor thermal comfort. In particular, it focuses specifically on
(in)direct solar radiation and its effect as quantified by the mean radiant
temperature. Key contributions include: (1) extending SOLWEIG’s 2.5D model to a
layered 3D representation for improved accuracy in complex urban geometries;
(2) automating the data pipeline using open Dutch geospatial datasets; (3)
enabling the modification of the existing urban scene; (4) enhancing output
usability through temporally grouped mean radiant temperature maps, derived
physiological equivalent temperature maps, and comparison statistics; and (5)
significantly reducing simulation time with GPU acceleration. The accuracy of
SOLFD was validated using sensor data, achieving an RMSE of 5.39°C. Underneath structures,
the RMSE increases to 5.83 °C. The potential of SOLFD is further demonstrated
with a case study across various Dutch urban typologies. By laying the
foundation for an accessible decision-support tool for outdoor thermal comfort,
SOLFD takes a step toward integrating climate-responsive strategies into the
urban design process.