Simulating Carbon Dispersion in the Outdoor Built Environment Using Urban Building Energy Modeling and Computational Fluid Dynamics

With climate-related hazards such as heat waves, fires, hurricanes, droughts, and floods becoming more frequent in recent years, reducing atmospheric carbon has emerged as a priority. In cities, efforts to reduce atmospheric carbon have primarily focused on lowering the energy consumption of buildings. However, studies suggest that minimizing building energy consumption alone will not be sufficient to meet the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement. To achieve these goals, new building materials and urban designs are being explored with the intent of transforming cities into carbon sinks. Before evaluating the efficacy of carbon sink strategies, it is important to assess the potential amount of carbon that could be dispersed within the urban canopy from various anthropogenic sources, including buildings. For this reason, this study aims to simulate carbon dispersion within the urban canopy using urban building energy modeling and computational fluid dynamics. Urban building energy modeling is employed to estimate carbon emissions from buildings at the neighborhood scale, while computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate carbon dispersion through air movement within the urban canopy. Models for performing urban building energy and computational fluid dynamics simulations are generated from a 3D city model of the Netherlands. In the 3D city model, the geometry of buildings is represented at Level of Detail 2.2. Their materials and internal heat gains are determined using an online database of building stock in Europe. The results identify locations in several neighborhoods of Delft, Netherlands, where significant amounts of carbon emitted by buildings are dispersed within the urban canopy. At these locations, implementing carbon sink strategies is recommended to help address climate change. The analysis of carbon sink strategies is deferred to future research.