Method for assessing the impact of buildings on access to daylight in urban neighborhoods applied in virtual scenarios

Abstract During daytime, daylight can help to reduce consumption from artificial sources. However, access to this resource is hampered as cities increase building density, increasing occupancy rates and building heights. Given this background, the aim of this study was to develop a method to investigate the impact of buildings on access to daylight though a static approach in neighbourhoods, using parameters and assessment techniques found in the literature, followed by an analysis using virtual scenarios to illustrate the application of the method. The methodology of this study, which involves the construction of a method, is divided into six steps: choice of analysis parameters, definition of the neighbourhood coverage radius, modelling and simulation, definition of the types of impacts, definition of the virtual scenarios and analysis of the data of the scenarios. To assess the impacts, the FLDV - Vertical Daylight Factor in the original scenario and in the scenario with the insertion of a building in the neighbourhood were compared. The simulation results of the case studies indicate that a type of urban environment configuration with buildings presenting different architectural forms between neighboring buildings and irregular installments, would help minimize adverse impacts on the neighbourhood.

摘要 日间自然光可有效降低人工照明的能源消耗。然而，随着城市建筑密度提升、开发强度提高以及建筑高度增加，自然光的可获取性受到了限制。鉴于此背景，本研究旨在开发一种方法，通过采用文献中已有的参数与评估技术，以静态分析方式探究街区内建筑对自然光可获取性的影响，并结合虚拟场景分析验证该方法的应用效果。本研究的方法构建流程共分为六个步骤：分析参数选取、街区覆盖半径界定、建模与仿真、影响类型定义、虚拟场景设定以及场景数据分析。为评估相关影响，本研究对比了原始场景与街区新增建筑场景下的FLDV（Vertical Daylight Factor，垂直采光系数）数值。案例研究的仿真结果表明，采用相邻建筑造型各异、排布不规则的城市空间布局模式，可有效降低对街区自然光获取的负面影响。