Multi-scale modelling connecting physical and socio-economic spaces: impact of human activities on building surface temperatures

We couple models that address a wide range of physical and social processes at the scale from individual person (SHAPE), to building (STEBBS), neighbourhood (SUEWS), and whole city (transport – MATSDA), to allow dynamic feedbacks between these processes to be simulated. This combined agent-based urban climate modelling system, DAVE (Dynamic Anthropogenic actiVities and feedback to Emissions), allows us to address feedback processes related to the urban metabolism. The model connects physical (e.g., urban form, materials) and socio-economic urban spaces (e.g., urban function, activities) by representing humans and their behaviour as active components of the urban system. This facilitates simulating spatio-temporal variability of indoor and outdoor activities of different types in various microenvironments of exposure, including transportation. Dynamics of human behaviour, informed in the model probabilistically by activity sequences derived from time use surveys, impacts energy expenditure characteristics (e.g., appliance use, metabolic rates) and exposure to environmental stressors in different urban spaces.

In this presentation, we use DAVE to demonstrate the impact of populations’ activities on the magnitude and timing of anthropogenic heat emissions, net storage heat flux from buildings and building facet (surface) temperatures. We explore the role of location within the city, and people’s transport choices for a common European building archetype (terraced houses). We use this to assess the importance for capturing dynamic feedbacks in high resolution numerical weather prediction (O(100m)).