Urban Heat Model v. 2.0.0

Documentation

Table of contents

• Introdution
• How to use
  • Material Configuration
  • Simulation Settings
  • 3D-Model
  • Comparison Map
  • Running Simulations

Introduction

This web-based application is designed to help you model and analyze how different surface materials and urban layouts affect temperature development over time. The tool allows you to configure different scenarios, run simulations and visualize the results. You can find example configurations in the GitHub Repository of this project.

How to use

1. Material Configuration

Using the Materials page you can configure the physical properties of surface Materials used in the simulation. You can configure:

• NameString
  

  Name under which the Material will be saved

• ColorString
  

  Hexadecimal Color-Code ex. #6b7376 of the Material. This will only be used to reference Materials in the 3D-Model

• DensityFloat
  

  Physical density of the Material in kg/m^3

• AlbedoFloat
  

  Albedo reflexion-coefficient between 0 and 1. This describes fraction of the incoming Radiation is reflected back into the atmosphere.

• EmissivityFloat
  

  Thermal emissivity-coefficient between 0 and 1. This measures how efficiently the material emits radiation.

• Heat capacityFloat
  

  Specific heat capacity of the material in J/(kg K)

• Thermal conductivityFloat
  

  Thermal conductivity in W/(m K)

• Evapotranspiration factorFloat
  

  Factor between 0 and 1 used to determine the amount of evapotranspiration. Where 1 would represent a Body full of Water with 100% evaporation and 0 a body with no evaporation nor transpiration.

All materials can be configured directly in the Web-App or uploaded as a JSON file. Make sure no doubles exist, this might cause errors.

2. Simulation Settings

Using the Settings page you can control basic variables of your Simulation. Variables which you can control are:

• Pixels in XYInteger
  

  Number of Pixels on the 3D grid in X- and Y-direction

• Pixels in ZInteger
  

  Number of Pixels on the 3D grid in Z-direction

• Pixel widthFloat
  

  Physical length of one Pixel in meters.

• Date & Time of SimulationDatetime
  

  Date and time of simulation scenario in the GMT+0 timezone

• Number of iterationsInteger
  

  Number of calculating iterations

• Duration of iterationInteger
  

  Physical duration of one iteration in seconds

• Latitude of locationFloat
  

  Latitude of geographical location

• Longitude of locationFloat
  

  Longitude of geographical location

• Initial TemperatureFloat
  

  Initial temperature set for each Voxel/Pixel on simulation start in degrees Celcius

• RadiationInteger
  

  Maximum solar radiation troughout the day in Watts per meter squared

• Max. wind speedFloat
  

  Maximum wind speed used for the simulation in meters per second

All settings can be configured directly in the Web-App or uploaded as a JSON file.

3. 3D-Model

The 3D Voxel Model of the simulation scenario can be created using the open-source VoxelPaint.online software. Make sure your Model has the same Dimensions as defined in the settings tab and uses only voxels with colors specified in the Materials Tab. Voxels that represent Air/empty space can be left out and will be recognized as such.

4. Comparison Map

The Web-App allows you to upload a 2D comparison map which is used to generate a difference map to visualize the error between your simulation result and the heat map you uploaded. Make sure the uploaded comparison map is a JSON file and of the same dimensions as the simulation scenario.

5. Running Simulations

To run the simulation step 1-4 have to be done correctly else running the simulation will result in errors. By clicking on the Run Simulation button, the simulation will be run using the paramters you set and visualisations of the results will be created live.

Found a bug or have a suggestion?

Help me make the Urban Heat Model better! Please open an issue on GitHub if you discover a bug or want to propose a new feature.