• Energy Research

The goal of the project is to propose a methodology to integrate quantitative energy and climate data in urban policies. In order to achieve this, the first objective is to obtain data from numerical simulations, focusing on urban microclimate and building energy consumption. Both aspects are physically coupled as domestic heating and air-conditioning are highly meteorologically dependent and heat waste impacts the Urban Heat Island. Forthis we develop a generic and automated method for generating Local Climate Zones (LCZ) for all cities in France at the scale of each urban block, including the urban architectural, geographical and sociological parameters necessary for the energy and microclimate simulations. Human behavior being a very potent level to address energy consumption reduction, a model of energy consumer behavior is also developed inside our coupled micro-climate building energy model, and is linked to the social information from the database. The second objective is to define vectors, understandable by urban planners, to include quantified energy-climate data to legal urban planning documents. This is done by analysis of legal and planning documents, of a few “best cases” and based on urban planning agencies requirements. The urban database, tools and models will be available as open-source.

The MApUCE project aims to integrate in urban policies and most relevant legal documents quantitative data from urban microclimate, climate and energy.The primary objective of this project is to obtain climate and energy quantitative data from numerical simulations, focusing on urban microclimate and building energy consumption in the residential and service sectors, which represents in France 41% of the final energy consumption. Both aspects are coupled as building energy consumption is highly meteorologically dependent (e.g. domestic heating, air-conditioning) and heat waste impact the Urban Heat Island. We propose to develop, using national databases, a generic and automated method for generating Local Climate Zones (LCZ) for all cities in France, including the urban architectural, geographical and sociological parameters necessary for energy and microclimate simulations.As will be presented, previous projects on adaptation of cities to climate change have shown that human behavior is a very potent level to address energy consumption reduction, as much as urban forms or architectural technologies. Therefore, in order to further refine the coupled urban climate and energy consumption calculations, we will develop within TEB (and its Building Energy Module) a model of energy consumer behavior.The second objective of the project is to propose a methodology to integrate quantitative data in urban policies. Lawyers analyze the potential levers in legal and planning documents. A few “best cases” are also studied, in order to evaluate their performances. Finally, based on urban planning agencies requirements, we will define vectors to include quantified energy-climate data to legal urban planning documents. These vectors have to be understandable by urban planners and contain the relevant information.To meet these challenges, the project is organized around strongly interdisciplinary partners in the following fields: law, urban climate, building energetics, architecture, sociology, geography and meteorology, as well as the national federation of urban planning agencies.In terms of results, the cross-analysis of input urban parameters and urban micro-climate-energy simulated data will be available on-line as standardized maps for each of the studied cities. The urban parameter production tool as well as the models will be available as open-source. LCZ and associated urban (and social!) indicators may be integrated within the WUDAPT database.

L'énergétique urbaine est un domaine qui couvre de nombreux pro-cessus complexes interagissant à toutes les échelles de la ville : le microclimat (l'effet d'îlot de chaleur), la consommation énergétique des bâtiments pour le chauffage ou la climatisation, les comportements énergétiques des habitants, la production d'énergie renouvelable, etc. Peu d'outils tiennent compte de ce ni-veau de complexité à cette échelle, rendant l'adaptation et l'atténuation aux changements climatiques très difficiles à intégrer dans les politiques urbaines ou les pratiques de conception. Au sein du projet de recherche MApUCE, qui propose une méthodologie pour effectuer des simulations de ces processus d'énergétique urbaine à l'échelle de toutes les communes et villes de France, nous avons développé une approche dont l'objectif est de pouvoir obtenir des données précises sur les caractéristiques et les matériaux des bâtiments. Elle est basée sur la mise en oeuvre d'une méthode de détermination automatique des typologies architecturales et urbaines pour toutes les villes de France et d'une base de données architecturale et historique. La méthode de détermination des typologies est une méthode globale et automa-tisée, dérivée de GENIUS, pour identifier les typologies urbaines à l'échelle du bâtiment et de l'îlot urbain. Elle utilise des indicateurs morphologiques ou so-ciodémographiques (eux-mêmes déterminés à partir des bases de données natio-nales) et réalise une classification mettant en oeuvre une méthode d'apprentissage supervisé basée sur les « Random Forest ». Ces typologies sont croisées avec les informations de la base de données archi-tecturale, au travers de l'indication de l'usage des bâtiments, leurs dates de construction et leur localisation géographique permettant ainsi de caractériser chacun des bâtiments en terme de matérialité (albédo, système constructif, isolation thermique, etc.) et de systèmes CVC. Urban energy is a domain that covers many complex processes thatinteract at all scales of the city: the microclimate (the heat island effect), building energy consumption for heating or cooling, inhabitants’behav-ior, renewable energyproduction, etc. Few tools take account ofthis level of complexity atthis scale, making the adaptation and mitigation to climate change very difficult to integrate into urban policies and design practices.Within the MApUCEresearch project, which proposes a methodology to carry out simulations of these urban energy processes across all towns and cities in France, we have developed an approach whose objective is to obtain accurate data onbuildings’characteristics andmaterials. It is based on the implementationof an auto-matic method for determining the architectural and urban typologies for all cities of France and an architectural and historical database.The method for determining the typologiesis a comprehensive and automated methodto identify urban typolo-gies at the building and the city block scales. The method usesmorphologicalor sociodemographicindicators (determined from national databases)and makes a classification implementing a supervised learning method based on the "Random Forest".These typologies are coupled with the architectural database’s information, through the indication of the buildings’usage, their date of construction and geographical location allowing to characterize each of the buildings in terms of materiality (albedo, constructive system thermal insulation, etc.), and HVAC systems.