1,720,976 research outputs found
Barcelona's network of climate shelters: categorization, availability and proximity to residential plots
No full textThe dataset contains information on both climate shelters and residential cadastral plots in Barcelona. Climate shelters are categorized by type of space, access conditions, and availability during the weekend and August. Residential cadastral plots are categorized according to their walking time to different categories of climate shelters, in a general setting, during the weekends and in August. The data was elaborated through GIS technology from open public datasets, and can be used to evaluate the efficacy of Barcelona’s network of climate shelters
Microclimatic response of urban form in the Mediterranean context
No full textThe relationship between morphology, climate and energy has always influenced deeply the development of urban settlements. In the Mediterranean context, this process led to compact and dense urban textures, made of highly inertial materials and cladded with bright colors in order to prevent overheating and thermal discomfort. Nowadays, cooling and heating systems relieves the architectural design from climatic constraints. However this has resulted in increased energy consumption, especially in the summer season because of the widespread use of air conditioning systems. The problem is worsened by the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Shape and geometry of a city affect its climate, and so the energy demand at the urban scale (Oke, 2012). The proportions of the urban canyon (height/width ratio) can produce multiple reflections of solar radiation. In addition, the cooling process is decreased during the night due to the low values of the sky view factor. Therefore, in a dense and compact urban texture, higher temperatures can occur especially during the night. The present study seeks to highlight the effect of urban morphology on the UHI intensity in the Mediterranean context. Several morphologically homogeneous textures of Rome and Barcelona are parametrically modelled and compared, by means of the Urban Weather generator tool (Bueno, 2012). The results show that air temperature substantially varies according to different urban morphologies. Understanding the microclimatic behavior of most recurrent urban textures can steer energy and retrofitting policies at urban scale and help to achieve the energy goals set by the EU
Elaboration of Spanish public open data to assess climatic variables of the built environment
No full textThe dataset contains information on three climatic variables and a vulnerability indicator, relative to each cadastral plot in che city of Barcelona, Spain. They portait the adaptive capacity to extreme heat of housing buildings in the city. The variables are: cross-ventilation potential, compactness of the surrounding urban fabric, presence of thermal insulation in the building's envelope. The indicator is the proximity to climate havens. The dataset was elaborated through a novel methodology which implies alphanumerical and vectorial processing of open data by the Spanish Cadaster and the Municipality of Barcelona
Urban morphology and energy performance in the 20th century public city: the case of Rome
No full textA vivacious discussion focusing on the 20th century public housing neighbourhoods’ urban regeneration and densification amongst academics and practitioners working in architecture and urban design is ongoing. Two main focuses of analysis have been investigated: the different transformation strategies and the relationship between urban morphology and energy performance in the existing urban fabric. At present, these focuses need to be developed into an integrated approach determining tools and design methods at urban scale. Our study presents a contribution to the energy analysis and related design tools at urban scale permitting to determine more efficient conditions for the 20th century public housing neighbourhoods. It has been carried out within the public building stock of Rome which globally represents the 12% of the urban footprint: an ideal environment to test urban scale design methods for urban regeneration in Mediterranean climate. The relation between morphology and energy demand has been investigated taken into account different spatial density definitions as useful indicators to illustrate this kind of relation. Among these indicators, those more suitable to express reliable trends in relation to energy demand have been determined. The analyses have been conducted with Design Builder and Energy Plus simulation tool. This paper present and discuss results for three case studies. Building intensity (FSI) and coverage (GSI) show that density has relevance on energy demand for heating and cooling. Especially at islands scale, these indicators seem to be more adequate to describe this relation. The investigation on these kinds of performances achieved by density indicators help comprehend the different behaviours in each urban fabric. Methodological structure and the determined parametrical tools show themselves as knowledge base for aware design transformations of this housing building stock
Urban morphology and energy performance: the direct and indirect contribution in mediterranean climate
No full textThe combined effects of urban heat island (UHI), urban population growth and energy overexploitation are undermining the safety of urban areas. Urban morphology plays a prominent role in this context, because it affects building's energy demand and local climate at urban scale. However, this contribution is recurrently neglected. The present contribution seeks to investigate the direct and indirect effect of urban morphology on buildings energy performance in the Mediterranean
climate. Urban morphology affects energy demand by modifying two relevant variables: outdoor air temperatures and incident radiation. The relevance of these effects were studied on a sample of urban textures of Rome and Barcelona. The study is parametric in approach. The textures were modelled and parameterized and their performances were compared. The UHI in different urban textures was calculated, by Urban Weather Generator tool. Then a sensitivity analysis of the building energy demand to the outdoor air emperatures and the incoming solar radiation was carried out, by EnergyPlus engine. Results confirm the relevance of urban morphology to the UHI intensity. Warmer temperatures lead to an average increase of energy demand from 10% to 35%, according to different urban densities. At the same time, the incident radiation reduction due to urban obstruction is desirable in Mediterranean climate; it allows a reduction of annual energy demand up to the 19% compared to an unobstructed environment. Therefore, relevant errors may occur if urban morphology’s contribution to energy demand is neglected, approximately 89% for space heating and 131% for space cooling calculations, depending on the texture density and the building orientation.Postprint (published version
Urban morphology indicators for solar energy analysis
Get PDFWithin the variation of energy performance at urban scale, the relation between solar irradiation and urban form takes a central role. The solar availability on fa ades which is influenced by the morphology of the urban context, is strictly related to building energy performance indeed. In this paper, we aim at identifying a set of urban morphology indicators (UMIs) that show the most accurate relations with the solar availability on fa ades (SIy) in the Mediterranean context. The analysis that relates to 14 urban textures of Rome and Barcelona comprises seven UMIs: gross space index, floor space index, fa ade-to-site ratio, average building height, volume-area ratio, building aspect ratio and sky factor of building fa ades. The SIy in each texture has been calculated with Heliodon2 software, using normalised models; the relation between SIy and UMIs were investigated using least-square regression analysis. Results suggest that gross space index, fa ade-to-site ratio and sky factor show very good correlation with SIy (R-2 = 0,91) and could be used to develop a comparative assessment tool of solar performance at fabric scale. This could ease the work of urban planners and architects in the early stage of design, reducing both data and time normally needed to perform solar analyses at urban scale
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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