Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44

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Energy & Buildings

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Estimating the impact of urban densification on high-rise office

building cooling loads in a hot and humid climate
Izabella Lima a,∗, Veridiana Scalco b, Roberto Lamberts c
a
PósARQ–Postgraduate Program of Architecture and Urban Planning, LabEEE–Building Energy Efficiency Laboratory, Department of Architecture and Urban
Planning, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
b
PósARQ–Postgraduate Program of Architecture and Urban Planning, LabCon–Environmental Comfort Laboratory, Department of Architecture and Urban
Planning, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
c
LabEEE–Building Energy Efficiency Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Urban densification is recommended as the most advantageous solution for the sustainable growth of
Received 20 August 2018 cities. However, when considering energy consumption, its effects are perceived as complex and con-
Revised 13 October 2018
flicting. Two of the main consequences of urban densification are changes in the climate resulting from
Accepted 16 October 2018
the urban heat island (UHI) effect and in the incident solar radiation - resulting from the surroundings
Available online 23 October 2018
buildings geometry, which can affect the energy consumption of a building in opposite ways. In a hot
Keywords: climate region a decrease in the direct solar radiation could be a positive factor but the UHI effect would
Energy simulation be negative in terms of reducing energy consumption. Thus, the overall effects of densification need to
Urban densification be evaluated for these regions. Herein, the influence of the urban environment geometry on the thermal
Hot and humid climate load of office buildings in a city with a hot and humid climate was evaluated. Energy dynamics simu-
Urban heat island lations were carried out by the modeling of the surrounding geometry and considering the UHI effect.
Urban modeling
When the urban environment was considered in the energy simulations average reductions in the ther-
Cooling load
mal load of 16–18% were observed, highlighting the importance of this approach. Shading was found to
be the major factor related to this reduction.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy consumption has been growing rapidly around the
world in recent decades. Cities account for a large portion of this
growth, and buildings account for more than one third of the fi-
nal energy consumption [1]. Energy consumption in cities tends to
grow and become more important due to factors such as a strong
increase in the urban population, urbanization and gas emissions
and the consequent increase in the air temperatures resulting from
global warming and the urban heat island (UHI) effect [2,3].
Urban densification is considered the best solution for sustain-
able growth in urban areas due to economic, social and envi-
ronmental factors. However, this densification is seen as negative
when considering energy consumption, and in this regard its ef-
fects are perceived as complex and conflicting.
Some studies indicate an increase in energy consumption in
cold climates in dense urban areas (compared to rural areas) due
to increased consumption of heating equipment, resulting from re-
∗ vestigation.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bellamedeiros@hotmail.com (I. Lima).
duced solar availability, even when taking into account the in-
crease in the temperature of urban canyon air caused by the UHI
effect [4]. In regions with a Mediterranean climate, although in
the majority of urban contexts analyzed an increase in the en-
ergy consumption of buildings within urban areas is also indicated,
the denser context presented a slight reduction in consumption
when compared to a building modeled without the surrounding
buildings and without considering the modification in the climate
caused by the UHI effect [5].
A decrease in the direct solar radiation could be a positive fac-
tor in hot climate locations, even if the UHI effect is negative due
to an increase in air temperature. In addition, according to [6], the
UHI effect has been largely studied, and there are several technolo-
gies and strategies to attenuate it in relation to air temperature
and surface temperature, such as the development of reflective ma-
terials, of cool roof technologies and of cool pavement technolo-
gies, the use of urban vegetation (trees and green roof technolo-
gies) and the use of solar control and shading. Thus, the question
of whether densification could be a positive factor in hot climate
regions when considering energy consumption merits further in-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.019
0378-7788/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
Densification causes changes in the energy balance of cities due
to several factors: (i) modification in the climate due to an in-
crease in the external air temperature, intense soil cover, a reduc-
tion in urban vegetation, the use of high-absorption materials, and
a decrease in the wind speed resulting from built-up barriers, con-
tributing to an increase in the UHI effect [7]; (ii) an alteration in
the amount of solar radiation that reaches urban surfaces, resulting
from a greater proximity of the buildings that affects the levels of
shading and solar reflection [8] and (iii) changes in the availability
of natural light [9]. The magnitude of these effects will vary de-
pending on the urban characteristics and climate conditions in the
region under analysis.
The analysis of changes caused by densification and their im-
pact at the different climatic scales and on the thermal and ener-
getic performance of buildings still presents a challenge for build-
ing energy simulation software. Different temporal and dimen-
sional scales considered in the models, limitation of the equip-
ment, the need for more information on the urban characteristics
and the difficulties associated with predicting user behavior hinder
predictions of the annual energetic impacts of all characteristics
of the urban setting [2,10]. Mao et al. [11] highlighted the urgent
need for simulation tools that quantify the real impact caused by
interactions between the thermal behavior of buildings in an urban
context and modifications in the urban climate.
Despite the limitations in this regard, investigations need to be
aimed at the development of solutions to address these important
issues. Thus, in this study, the influence of the urban context on
the energy performance of buildings was investigated through an
analysis of the cooling load. The influence of the solar radiation on
the energy performance of buildings is analyzed in depth based on
variations in the values for the surface reflectance and window to
wall ratio (WWR) of the elements of the urban environment and
of the shading patterns provided by different urban geometries.
Other changes promoted by urban densification that affect
building energy performance, such as modifications in the climate
and access to natural light, were considered in a simplified way.
Changes in the air temperature and relative humidity (caused by
the UHI effect) were considered through the generation of new ur-
ban weather files with UWG software. The use of artificial lighting
was considered during all hours in which the building was in use,
without considering natural lighting. According to Li and Wong
[12] and Pisello et al. [9], taking into account natural lighting has a
significant effect on the energy demand, but this is mainly related
to the artificial lighting load and not the thermal load, which was
the parameter under analysis in this study.
The amount of solar radiation incident to buildings within ur-
ban areas is dependent on the reflection and shading caused by
surrounding elements, such as buildings, trees and soil, as well as
geographic factors, such as latitude. When there is a greater prox-
imity of buildings, the effects of solar reflection and shading can
become more or less intense, especially in cities with a high urban
density. Therefore, further studies are needed to evaluate buildings
within urban contexts when considering energy consumption anal-
ysis.
In this regard, although in most research related to building en-
ergy consumption the impact of surrounding buildings is not in-
cluded in the analysis, the urban environment can be considered
in some energy simulations as shading elements and some studies
have demonstrated the importance of taking into account the in-
fluence of the urban context in simulations. Climatic phenomena,
such as UHI, are not considered together, constituting the main
limitation of these research studies.
Samuelson et al. [13] highlighted the great importance of con-
sidering the urban context in thermo-energy simulations in the
initial stages of a project in three climatic contexts (Beijing, New
York and Shenzhen) and in three urban contexts (high, medium
31
and low density). The results, which compared the energy per-
formance of buildings with and without the modeling of the ur-
ban environment geometry, indicated that the impact is signifi-
cant even in very low density urban contexts and demonstrated
an increase in energy consumption for heating and artificial light-
ing caused by the consideration of the urban context, as well as
a reduction of energy consumption for cooling in a larger propor-
tion than the other loads. In the warmer climate context (Shen-
zhen), where there is no consumption for heating, shading be-
came only a positive effect when considering energy consumption,
since modification in the climate due to a greater density was not
analyzed.
Pisello et al. [14] also reinforced two important contributions of
a previously presented study: the distortion of the results for the
prediction of energy use when analyzing a building without tak-
ing into account the surrounding buildings and the variation in the
size of this effect in different climatic contexts. The results, simu-
lated in extreme USA climatic contexts (Miami and Minneapolis),
compared simulations of a building with and without surrounding
buildings and presented greater inaccuracies in the annual energy
prediction for a hotter climate context (with a reduction of up to
32.7% when considering the urban environment). The study also
showed that the two main contributors to changes in energy con-
sumption caused by the adoption of the urban environment factor
are shading and solar reflection.
Han et al. [8] continued the study by Pisello et al. [14], and
disaggregated the effects of shading and solar reflection into three
distinct climatic contexts: temperate (Washington), warm (Miami)
and cold (Minneapolis). The results showed that shading has a sig-
nificantly greater impact in relation to solar reflection. Here again,
the greater impact in hotter climates was highlighted.
In Brazil, Martins et al. [3] evaluated the impact of taking into
account the urban context in five different urban typologies in a
city with a hot and humid tropical climate (Maceió, Brazil), and
indicated that the more dense and vertical context had the lowest
energy consumption. The least dense typology was the one with
the lowest energy efficiency. The analysis showed the important
effect of verticalization and urban densification on a reduction in
the energy demand of buildings in the climate analyzed, due to
shading.
Other authors have considered the inclusion of the urban con-
text in simulations only considering the changes in climate caused
by the UHI effect, resulting from the modification of the weather
file from non-urbanized areas according to the urban characteris-
tics of the place of analysis, aimed at a more accurate prediction of
the energy performance in dynamic simulations. In these studies,
the modeling of surrounding buildings was not considered, consti-
tuting its main limitation.
The modification of the weather file can mainly occur in two
ways. The first is through field measurements, where both a station
located in an open field setting (rural) and a station located in an
urban center are monitored [4,15]. In this method the annual cli-
matic data measured at the station in a given urban context would
form a weather file equivalent to the urban climate of that portion
of the city, while the difference between the data measured in the
urban context and the data measured in rural context would indi-
cate the proportion of the UHI effect. However, obtaining field data
is difficult and expensive, in addition to being spatially and tem-
porally limited [2]. Therefore, the availability of this data is very
limited, making it impossible to use this method in several places.
In order to overcome these limitations related to the first way
of modifying weather files, it is possible to extend data from a ru-
ral meteorological station to other sites using extrapolation tech-
niques or climate-generating software [2]. The modification of the
air temperature values from mathematical models (according to
characteristics of the urban environment where the building under
32 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
analysis is located) constitutes the second form of modification of
a weather file.
Nowadays there are several mathematical methods for modi-
fying weather files. Some are more simplified, such as that de-
scribed by Crawley [16], who calculated the hourly difference in air
temperature according to population size. Others require a greater
level of detail of the thermal and physical characteristics of the
study area, such as the approach proposed and improved by Bueno
et al., [17], Nakano et al. [18], Yang [19] and Mao et al. [11], that
resulted in the urban weather generator (UWG) model. The UWG
is a specific software program for the production of urban weather
files obtained by modifying existing rural weather files in Energy-
Plus Weather file (EPW) format. The use of modified weather files
allows coupling with energy simulation programs [20].
Some studies in which urban weather files have been used were
focused on analyzing the modification in the climate due to the
UHI effect in urban canyons. Unzeta et al. [20] conducted a UWG
simulation in Abu Dhabi and showed an increase in air tempera-
ture at all hours of the day when the urban context is taken into
account and indicated a greater variation between the night and
early morning (up to 5 °C), in agreement with the UHI literature. In
Bueno et al. [21], air temperature values calculated by UWG sim-
ulations were compared to seven measurements from different ur-
ban contexts of Singapore and also to measurements from a non-
urbanized area. The values calculated by the UWG were closer to
those measured in urban contexts than the values measured in a
non-urbanized area.
Other authors have used the urban weather file and analyzed
its impact on energy performance. Results obtained by Liu et al.
[7] indicated that climate change has led to an increase in energy
consumption in three different areas analyzed in the city of Sin-
gapore (hot and humid equatorial climate) and that the largest in-
crease (11%) was identified in the most densified area of the city
and the lowest increase (4%) in a less densified area. However,
Crawley [16] showed that in cold climates the change in annual en-
ergy consumption due to urbanization would be positive from an
energy point of view, reducing consumption by up to 10%. How-
ever, for tropical climates, the annual energy consumption would
suffer an increase of up to 20%. Santamouris [22] concluded that
the available studies comparing the energy consumptions of simi-
lar buildings located in urban and rural areas are limited, but the
existing data show that the average increase in the cooling load
due to UHI (13%) is statistically significant.
Although studies on both the insertion of the physical charac-
teristics of urban contexts, such as shading elements, and the mod-
ification of the climate in urban areas have been reported, few au-
thors have simulated the energy performance coupling these two
approaches.
In the search for a more accurate and realistic prediction of en-
ergy consumption, Allegrini et al. [4], Bueno et al. [23] and Sal-
vati et al. [5] conducted energy simulations coupling the mod-
eling of the elements of urban geometry, such as shading de-
vices, and the use of weather files modified according to the ur-
ban context of analysis, including the UHI effect. These studies,
performed in Switzerland, France and Italy, respectively, demon-
strated that the UHI effect and the inclusion of urban geometry
in the thermal-energy simulations significantly modifies the esti-
mated energy consumption of buildings, which is higher in most of
the cases analyzed in temperate and Mediterranean regions, com-
pared to routinely performed simulations (isolated buildings and
rural weather files). However, Salvati et al. [5] highlighted that the
higher the density, the lower the load of buildings in these cli-
mates, because a reduction in incident solar radiation is compen-
sated by an increase in temperature resulting from the UHI effect.
In order to increase the climatic range of studies that analyze
in a coupled way the impacts of the urban context on the energy
performance of buildings, in this study the influence of the urban
environment on the thermal load of air-conditioned office build-
ings in Maceió, was analyzed. This city is characterized by a hot
and humid climate and located in the northeast of Brazil. To this
end, modification of the climate caused by the urban environment
was considered through the generation of new urban weather files
with the UWG software and energy simulations were carried out
with the EnergyPlus software.
The overall objectives of the study include: (a) to promote the
discussion of taking into account urban contexts in dynamic build-
ing energy simulations, considering the main changes it causes
(modification in climate, from the UHI effect, and changes in so-
lar radiation) in the modeling of the urban environment; (b) to
determine the characteristics of buildings in urban environments
that most strongly influence the energy performance of a building
(focusing on reflectance of the envelope and WWR) and (c) to ob-
serve the energy performance behavior of office buildings within
urban contexts located in a hot and humid climate.
In order to achieve the objective described in (b), more de-
tailed conditions of the urban context in building energy simula-
tions were analyzed to reach a more accurate prediction of the en-
ergy consumption of buildings. In this regard, not only considering
external elements such as shading, but also their reflectance and
WWR values, so that the solar reflection from direct and diffuse
radiation could approximate the conditions which actually exist in
the urban environment, originating from soil or from vertical sur-
faces.
In this sense, recent studies have already been carried out ana-
lyzing the impact of the alteration of the characteristics of the ur-
ban materials in the temperature of the urban canyons and empha-
sizing the importance of considering them correctly in the compu-
tational simulations. Jandaghian and Akbari [24] observed in differ-
ent cities of the United States (Sacramento, Houston and Chicago)
that the increase of the albedo of the urban surfaces resulted in
the reduction of the urban temperature, increase of the air speed
and increase of the relative humidity. Morini et al. [25] observed
that the use of cold materials (with high reflectance) in building
envelopes in urban canyons reduced the air temperature in the
urban canyons in three different urban typologies (H/W ratio of
1, 0.5 and 2). In this way, the present research seeks to analyze
the impact of the consideration of the urban environment as it re-
ally presents itself in the city, considering also the variations of
reflectance of its surfaces, taking into account its impact on the
energy consumption of a building within cities.
2. Methodology
The insertion of the urban context in thermo-energy simula-
tions is increasingly necessary due to the increasing proximity of
buildings within a city, resulting from urban densification. Based
on a literature search, it was possible to observe that studies where
micro-climatic changes are coupled with modifications of the ge-
ometry provided by the urban context in simulations are concen-
trated in cities with a temperate or Mediterranean climate. To fill
this climatic gap, this study was carried out in Maceió, a city with
a hot and humid tropical climate, located in Alagoas State, in the
northeast of Brazil.
Maceió, latitude −9°67 and longitude −35°74 , has high tem-
peratures throughout the year, with monthly averages between
23.6 °C in August and 26.8 °C in March and high relative humidity
all year round, with monthly averages between 72.7% in November
and 86.5% in May. Low annual thermal amplitude and low relative
humidity variations are accompanied by a low daily thermal am-
plitude of 6.9 °C on average. Summer and winter are differentiated
by the rainy season, which occurs in winter, with higher precipita-
tion rates between April and July.
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44 33

Fig. 1. Urban context with location of building lots analyzed, surrounding lots with building, roads and sidewalks. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure,
the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

To achieve the study objectives, the applied methodology con- Table 1

Simulation parameters.
sisted of three main steps:
Simulation parameters
• Characterization of simulation cases (Section 2.1)
Internal People 9.0 m²/person
• Modification of weather files (Section 2.2)
gains Activity 70 W/m²
• Data treatment (Section 2.3) Artificial lighting 8.6 W/m²
Electrical equipment 16.2 W/m²
The first step involved the characterization of simulation cases Air Infiltration 0.5 ACH
and the definition of the characteristics of the building analyzed changes Air renewal rate 0.0075 m³/s per person
and of the urban context considered in the building energy simula- HVAC Ideal load Set point - 18 °C–24 °C
tions. The second step consisted of the UWG simulation, changing
the rural EPW of Maceió (EPW INMET) to an urban EPW, accord-
ing to the urban context of the analysis. Building energy simula-
tion with EnergyPlus software was carried out with rural EPW or,
in the case of an urban context, urban EPW. In the last step, the High rise offices were the architectural typology adopted for the
data were treated, the main questions that the study aims to an- analysis. The simulation settings related to loads resulting from the
swer were addressed and the analysis performed for each set of operation of the building are shown in Table 1. The building oper-
results were described. ation was defined with 100% occupancy from Monday to Friday,
from 8am to 6pm, and 0% occupancy at other times during the
2.1. Characterization of simulation cases week and all weekend hours. During occupation the artificial light-
ing, electrical equipment and "ideal load" air conditioning system
Building energy simulations were carried out with the Energy- were considered to be in operation, while air infiltration was in-
Plus software (version 8.6). As the main objective of this study was cluded only when the air conditioner was turned off and there was
to analyze the influence of the urban environment on the thermal no occupation.
load of a building, the cases (Fig. 1) are comprised of the building Two architectural configurations were defined for the buildings
to be analyzed (green lot), with constant envelope characteristics, analyzed (Fig. 2): Office 1 is an office building with 9 floors, di-
and the urban context (beige lots). mensions of 20 × 20 m, higher occupancy rate (42%) and shorter
The building analyzed, located in lot N or lot S, was used to distances from the lot boundaries and Office 2 is an office building
determine the influence of the urban environment on the cooling with 15 floors, 12 × 12 m, lower occupancy rate (15%) and longer
load and was considered to have a constant envelope and oper- distances from the lot boundaries. In the modeling, each floor of
ating characteristics in all simulations. Its structure is composed the building was divided into five different thermal zones: four
of 6-hole ceramic walls (U = 2.39 W/m²K), first floor with concrete zone perimeters with a depth of 4.6 m and one central zone, as
and ceramic floor (U = 3.44 W/m²K) ribbed concrete slab with plas- recommended in ASHRAE 90.1 [26]. The openings represent 50%
ter and ceramic floor (U = 2.35 W/m²K), fiber-cement roof cover- of the façades. These two architectural configurations were defined
ing (U = 2.06 W/m²K) and single gray glass (0.6 cm) in the openings aiming to observe the impact of the characteristics of the urban
(U = 5.79 W/m²K). environment on two different lots: one containing a vertical build-
34 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
Fig. 2. Dimensions of the buildings analyzed: Office 1 (a) and Office 2 (b).
ing with lower height and higher occupancy rate and another with
a vertical building of higher height and lower occupancy rate.
Two environmental settings were defined for the urban con-
text: with and without urban environment geometry considered.
The model without urban environment geometry is characterized
by the lack of buildings in the surrounding lots and in the context
with urban environment geometry the surrounding lots contain
buildings with the same dimensions as the building analyzed. The
urban environment buildings were modeled as shading elements.
The insertion of the characteristics related to these elements (re-
flectance, WWR and type of glass) was carried out in the object
ShadingProperty: Reflectance, in EnergyPlus.
The combination of the location of the building analyzed (lot
N or S), the configuration of building analyzed (Office 1 or 2 ty-
pology) and the type of urban context (without or with urban
environment geometry) resulted in 6 analysis cases, as shown in
Table 2.
In cases Office1 and Office2 the rural weather file (EPW INMET)
was used. Therefore, these cases represent the type of building
simulations generally conducted, without taking into account the
urban context in relation to its geometry and the climate changes
resulting from the UHI effect.
For the cases Office1_N, Office1_S, Office2_N and Office2_S, the
rural EPW INMET file was modified according to the urban con-
text of each scenario, resulting in new urban EPW files for Maceió,
named UWG 1 and UWG 2, referring to cases of Office 1 and Of-
fice 2, respectively. The simulation parameters used in the UWG
software are detailed below (Section 2.2).
These cases with urban environment geometry represent the
type of simulation proposed herein as being more suitable for
building energy simulations within urban contexts, since they in-
clude the climatic changes in the new urban weather files and the
modifications in the solar radiation pattern through the insertion
of the geometry of buildings in the urban environment.
To conduct a detailed analysis of the influence of solar reflec-
tion coming from the surrounding buildings, parametric simula-
tions were performed to analyze three different reflectance and
three different WWR scenarios of the vertical shading elements of
the urban environment buildings (Table 3).
The variations in the reflectance rate of vertical surfaces
were classified according to the following range: low (<0.3),
medium (0.3–0.6) and high (>0.60). To represent the three
types of reflectance for the façades of the surrounding build-
ings the colors chosen were: gray (low), beige (medium) and
white (high) with reflectance values of 0.13, 0.45 and 0.73, respec-
tively. The glass types were also classified according to the re-
flectance range presented. Monolithium single gray glass (6 mm,
SF = 0.6 and U = 5.79 W/m²K), laminate single clear glass (8 mm,
SF = 0.29 and U = 5.67 W/m²K) and double glass (6 mm, SF = 0.21
and U = 1.3 W/m²K) with reflectance values of 0.053, 0.4 and 0.62,
respectively, were selected to represent low, medium and high re-
flectance.
The need for a variation in the WWR (20%, 60% and 80%) arose
because the reflection provided by vertical elements behaves dif-
ferently depending on the type of surface in the EnergyPlus soft-
ware, being considered diffuse when coming from opaque ele-
ments and specular from translucent elements.
For all simulations, the model was considered for a ter-
rain within a city, with a solar distribution with full in-
terior and exterior reflections, the building had direct con-
tact with the soil and the soil reflectance was maintained at
0.2.
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44 35

Table 2
Cases for computer simulation.

Case terminology Office1 Office1_N Office1_S

Building analyzed Office 1 Office 1 Office 1
Relative lot location North or South North South
Urban context Without urban environment With urban environment With urban environment

Cases
Case terminology Office2 Office2_N Office2_S
Analysis building Office 2 Office 2 Office 2
Lot location North or South North South
Urban context Without urban environment With urban environment With urban environment

Cases

Table 3
Cases for computer simulation of each case with urban environment geometry (Office1_N, Office1_S, Office2_N and Office2_S).

Case WWR variation Reflectance rate of surrounding Reflectance rate of Facade of surrounding buildings per
terminology (%) buildings walls surrounding buildings floor
glass type

20LR 20 Low (0,13) Low (0,053)

20MR 20 Medium (0,45) Medium (0,4)

20HR 20 High (0,73) High (0,62)

50LR 50 Low (0,13) Low (0,053)

50MR 50 Medium (0,45) Medium (0,4)

50HR 50 High (0,73) High (0,62)

80LR 80 Low (0,13) Low (0,053)

80MR 80 Medium (0,45) Medium (0,4)

80HR 80 High (0,73) High (0,62)

36 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44

Table 4
Input data from urban weather files UWG 1 and UWG 2.

Simulation parameters UWG 1 UWG 2

Construction Urban road albedo (-) 0.2

Urban road vegetation coverage (%) 5 10
Rural albedo (-) 0.2
Rural vegetation coverage (%) 86
Building Night internal gain (W/m²) 3.72
Day internal gain (W/m²) 47.6
Radiant fraction of internal heat gain (-) 0.54
Latent fraction of internal heat gain (-) 0.1
Ventilation (ACH) 0.99
Cooling system COP (-) 2.6
Setpoint ( °C) 18–24
Urban Average building height (m) 27 45
Area Horizontal building density (%) 28 10
Facade to site ratio (-) 1.53 1.53
Tree coverage (%) 5 10
Non-building sensible anthropogenic heat (W/m²) 9.2
Non-building latent anthropogenic heat (W/m²) 0.92
Daytime boundary layer height (m) 10 0 0
Nighttime boundary layer height (m) 50
Reference height (m) 150
Station Latitude (°) −9.67
Longitude (°) −35.74
Average obstacle height (m) 0.3

2.2. Modification of weather file 2.3. Data treatment

UWG is a computational design tool that provides specific cli-
mate data for a given city geometry and land use from climatic
data obtained from rural reference weather stations, located in
open field conditions [18]. The software is a computational model
to predict changes in air temperature and humidity at the urban
canyon level for architects, planners and engineers [21].
The simulation output is a modified EPW (EnergyPlus Weather)
file. It is generated from an EPW file for a non-urban weather sta-
tion and an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file that describes
the urban characteristics of the site under analysis and the rural
characteristics of the location of the meteorological station [18].
For this study two weather file simulations (UWG 1 for Of-
fice1_N or S and UWG 2 for Office2_N or S) were performed ac-
cording to the cases with urban environment. In the simulation,
the rural EPW file referring to the city of Maceió (INMET 2016)
was used. The XML files, which contain the urban characteris-
tics of each of the simulated cases, were elaborated according to
the parameters of the urban environment cases described above
(Section 2.1) and the additional data given in Table 4, requested by
the UWG. Other input parameters requested were extracted from
Nakano [27].
Nakano et al. [18] noted that although simplifications and as-
sumptions in the modeling prevent the capture of very specific mi-
croclimate effects at the site, the models can remain robust enough
to produce values for temperature and humidity changes able to
represent the UHI effect (mesoclimatic scale) according to vali-
dations made in four climatic contexts, Basel in Switzerland and
Toulouse in France [17], Singapore [28] and Boston in the USA [27],
and in different urban contexts. For this reason, in the UWG sim-
ulations the envelope variations of the surrounding buildings were
not taken into account in relation to the reflectance and WWR. In
all cases the values for medium reflectance of the walls and glass
and a WWR of 50% were adopted.
Simulation results were divided into three topics in order to ad-
dress the following three main questions:
• Which factor resulting from the insertion of the urban context
in simulations has the greatest influence on the prediction of
the building thermal loads?
This question was addressed through a graphical comparison
between the values for the annual cooling load of the cases with
and without urban environment geometry, observing the influence
separately of the modification of the weather file and the consid-
eration of the geometry of the surrounding buildings (Section 3.1).
• Which characteristics of the envelope of the surrounding build-
ings have the greatest influence on the prediction of the ther-
mal load of the buildings analyzed?
In relation to this question, the results of all cases with urban
environment geometry were analyzed (Section 3.2), to evaluate if
there is a difference in the effects of the solar reflectance and the
WWR on the annual thermal load.
• Are there changes in the behavior of the results or in the differ-
ences between the cases with and without urban environment
geometry for the different months of the year, different num-
bers of floors or different thermal zones?
Based on the results associated with the previous question, the
two most extreme cases were selected to perform a more detailed
analysis of the thermal load of the buildings analyzed, showing
their load per month, per floor and per thermal zone (Section 3.3).
Based on the above considerations, the aim of this study was to
contribute to (i) a discussion of the use of urban contexts in build-
ing energy simulations, considering the main changes it causes (in
terms of climate and the solar radiation that reaches buildings), (ii)
to determine the characteristics of the surrounding buildings that
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44 37

Fig. 3. Annual cooling load of cases without urban environment and cases with
urban environment (50MR).

most influence the energy performance of a building, and (iii) to

observe the energy performance behavior of office buildings within
urban contexts located in a hot and humid climate.
The performance analysis was based only on the thermal load
data, disregarding the loads related to equipment and artificial Fig. 4. Annual cooling load of cases with urban environment (50MR at the end)
lighting, which were kept constant for all cases. The results cor- and those without the geometry of urban surroundings modeled (w/o urban geo).
respond only to the load required for cooling, since in the climate
of the city of Maceió there is no load for heating throughout the
year.

3. Results

In this section, the results for the thermal load for cooling ob-
tained from computational simulations for the climatic context of
Maceió are reported. In the graphs, the results obtained from the
simulations as they are generally performed (without modeling the
urban environment geometry or modifying the weather file), that
is, cases Office1 and Office2, are presented in green. The results
from the simulations conducted as proposed herein, for buildings
within urban contexts (modeling the urban environment geom-
etry and using the modified weather file) are presented in red
(Office1_N), blue (Office1_S), orange (Office2_N) and purple (Of-
fice2_S).

3.1. Modifications observed with consideration of the urban

environment

Firstly, the thermal load of the building analyzed was evaluated,

comparing the cases with and without the urban environment ge-
ometry, considering all surrounding buildings with a WWR of 50%
and medium reflectance (50MR), as shown in Fig. 3, In order to ob-
serve separately the impacts of modeling the urban environment
geometry and the modification of the weather file (considering the
UHI effect on the thermal load), the results are given individually
in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively.
In Fig. 3, on comparing the cases referring to the simulation
with an urban environment and the cases without urban surround-
ings, it can be observed that the cooling load in the latter case
is significantly higher (16–18%). This difference is because in the
cases with urban environment (Office1_N, Office1_S, Office2_N and
Office2_S) the geometry of the surrounding buildings was consid-
ered in the thermo-energy simulation and the weather file had
been modified according to the urban characteristics of the loca-
tion. On analyzing Figs. 4 and 5, it can be seen that the modeling
of the urban surroundings had a much greater influence than the
Fig. 5. Annual cooling load of cases with urban environment (50MR at the end)
and those without considering the UHI (w/o UHI).
modification of the weather file, since its consideration resulted in
a 19–21% reduction in the cooling load, while the use of the urban
weather file resulted in an increase in average cooling load of only
3%.
The average change of 20% in the cooling load when adopting
urban context modeling (Fig. 4) can be attributed mainly to the
shading and the reflection coming from the vertical elements of
the buildings surrounding the building analyzed [8,9,14]. In order
to understand the influence of these two parameters separately,
simulations were performed individually. To observe the influence
38 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44

Fig. 6. Temperature difference between weather files: urban EPW UWG 1 (a) or UWG 2 (b) and rural EPW INMET.

Table 5 urban densification causes the UHI effect (Fig. 6), for the climate
Difference between annual cooling load for cases with urban environment
and urban density studied, this was not a significant factor from
and cases with urban environment by without the influence of shading and
reflection, separately. the thermal load viewpoint. This is because the phenomenon oc-
curs on a larger scale at night and at dawn (when the building in
Office1_N Office1_S Office2_N Office2_S
question is not being used). Also, in the morning, which represents
Without shading 15% 16% 14% 15% half of the building operating hours, the urban temperature (EPW
Without reflection −3% −3% −4% −4% UWG 1 and 2) is slightly below the values measured in the open
field setting (EPW INMET) due to the presence of shading. Thus,
the UHI effect probably has a greater impact on buildings that are
occupied during the nighttime period.
of solar reflection alone, the value of 0 was adopted in the re-
In relation to the differences between the two architectural
flectance of the vertical elements of the surrounding buildings. In
configurations defined for the buildings analyzed (Offices 1 and 2),
order to evaluate only the influence of the shading provided by
it can be observed that the values are up to 35 kWh /m² a year
these elements, a transmittance of 1 was adopted for the surfaces
higher for Office 2. Two factors can explain this higher cooling
of the surrounding buildings, making them "transparent" to the ef-
load value: the first is the greater distance between buildings in
fect of shading, but maintaining their characteristics of reflectance
the case of Office 2, which allows a higher incidence of solar radi-
in the analysis, as described by Han et al. [8]. Table 5 shows that
ation and promotes less shading; and the second is that, although
the influence of shading (with an increase of 14–16% in the cool-
both typologies have the same vertical surface areas, their influ-
ing load when this factor is not considered) is higher than the in-
ence is greater for Office 2, since in this case the perimeter zones
fluence of reflection (with a reduction of 3–4% in the cooling load
(ZN, ZS, ZL, ZO) correspond to 95% of the area of each floor while
when this factor is not considered).
for Office 1 the perimeter zones correspond to 70%. In relation to
In relation to the modification of the weather files (Fig. 5), the
the differences for the buildings located in the N or S lots, the val-
small difference (3%) between the rural EPW file (INMET) and the
ues for the S cases were slightly lower than those for the N cases,
urban EPW files (UWG 1 and UWG 2) may indicate that although
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44 39

Fig. 7. Annual cooling load for Office 1.

Fig. 8. Annual cooling load for Office 2.

for both Offices 1 and 2, since the north façade receives direct in-
solation for 60% of the hours of the year, while the south façade
receives direct sunlight for 40% of the hours of the year.
3.2. Parametric variation in envelope of surrounding buildings
Figs. 7 and 8 report the annual cooling load results for all cases.
The values for the cases considering the urban environment ge-
ometry show the parametric variation of the surrounding building
envelopes with WWRs of 20%, 50% and 80% and low, medium and
high reflectance.
On comparing the cooling load values for the cases with and
without urban environment geometry, a maximum difference of
22% is observed in the case of 80% WWR and low reflectance, and
a minimum difference of 13% for the case of 20% WWR and high
reflectance.
The parametric variation of cases with urban environment ge-
ometry indicates that the lower the WWR and the higher the re-
flectance of the surrounding buildings the higher the cooling load
values for the building analyzed will be and, conversely, the higher
the WWR and the lower the reflectance of the surroundings build-
ings the lower the cooling load values will be. The largest differ-
ence between the parametric cases was 8%. However, here it is
important to note that EnergyPlus does not account for the long-
wave radiation from surrounding buildings, which would probably
reduce this difference.
A variation in the reflectance has a greater impact on the
cooling load when compared to a variation in the WWR. The
highest load variations for different reflectance values, consider-
ing the same WWR (20%), were 8.5 kWh/m²/year for Office 1 and
12.7 kWh/m²/year for Office 2, while the highest differences in the
load on varying the WWR, considering the same reflectance (high),
were 6.4 W/m²/year for Office 1 and 10.4 kWh/m²/year for Office 2.
In a detailed analysis of the thermal load, the case with a WWR
of 20% and high reflectance (higher annual load), named 20HR, and
the case with a WWR of 80% and low reflectance (lower annual
load), named 80LR, were selected. It should be noted that this re-
sult does not indicate that buildings within urban contexts should
adopt envelopes of low reflectance and high WWR. It only indi-
cates that the characteristics of the urban environment have a sig-
nificant influence on the analysis of the thermal load of urban
buildings, and therefore must be taken into account in thermo-
energy simulations. In general, envelopes with low reflectance and
40 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
Fig. 9. Monthly cooling load for Office 1 cases.
Fig. 10. Monthly cooling load for Office 2 cases.
a high WWR are not recommended for buildings located in cities
with a hot climate, as this can increase the thermal discomfort in-
side the building and in the surrounding urban areas, as well as
promote an increase in the building thermal load.
The results for the annual thermal load demonstrated that the
consideration of an urban environment is indispensable and em-
phasized the importance of shading in reducing the cooling load.
3.3. Detailed thermal load
3.3.1. Monthly thermal load
Figs. 9 and 10 represent the monthly cooling load results for
Offices 1 and 2, respectively. Once again it is possible to observe
the greater load in all months for 20HR compared to 80LR for the
cases with urban environment, and for the cases without urban
environment (Office1 and Office2) compared to cases with urban
environment (Office1_N or S and Office2_N or S).
In the warmer months (between October and May) the cool-
ing load is higher than in the winter period, characterized in Ma-
ceió by the rainy season. The difference in load between sum-
mer and winter, however, is more pronounced for Office 2, reach-
ing a maximum difference of 4.5 kWh/m²/month between July
and January, whereas for Office 1 this maximum difference was
3.0 kWh/m²/month.
On comparing the values for the cases with urban environ-
ment and without urban environment, presented in green, it can
be observed that the differences for the cases in the north lot (Of-
fice1_N and Office2_N) are always smaller in the winter, while for
the cases in the south lot (Office1_S and Office2_S) the differences
are always smaller in the summer months. These results demon-
strate the influence of direct radiation on the cooling load. For
the Office1_N and Office2_N cases the east, west and south fa-
cades are significantly more obstructed than the north facade. The
north façade, which is unobstructed, receives 60% of the direct ra-
diation for the year, concentrated mainly in the winter months.
Thus, in the winter months, the loads for the Office1_N and Of-
fice2_N cases are closer to the cases without urban environment
than in the summer months, because in winter the amount of ra-
diation that reaches the buildings analyzed in the Office1_N and
Office2_N cases is more similar to that for the cases without urban
environment. In the summer this difference becomes larger due to
the fact that the southern façade, which receives more direct radia-
tion at this time, is more obstructed. The same logic applies to the
Office1_S and Office2_S cases in relation to higher solar radiation
received during summer.
Considering the same urban environment (with the same re-
flectance value and WWR), the loads for the Office1_N and Of-
fice2_N cases in relation to those for the Office1_S and Office2_S
cases are higher only during the winter. The maximum annual dif-
ference between the N and S cases with same urban environment
was 1% but the maximum monthly difference was 7% in July.
Thus, the monthly analysis was important to demonstrate that
the low annual difference between the load values for the N and
S cases, considering the same urban environment, is not constant
throughout the year, since it is much more significant in the winter
period.
3.3.2. Annual thermal load per floor
The results for the cooling load per floor for Offices 1 and 2,
respectively, are shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
A strong influence of the shading on the cooling load per floor
analysis can be noted. In the cases without urban environment the
load remains very similar for different floors (except for the top
floor, which has an exposed roof, and the ground floor). However,
in the cases with urban environment geometry there is a variation
of 13–24% for the different floors. For the Office1_N or S and Of-
fice2_N or S cases the upper floors always have the highest load
and the smallest difference in relation to cases without urban sur-
roundings, and this difference increases for the ground floor, re-
sulting from the greater obstruction of the radiation at these floors
and, consequently, a smaller cooling load is required.
For the top floor, the variation between cases with and without
urban environment is only 2–8% depending on the urban scenario,
while for the ground floor this variation reaches 13–25%. In rela-
tion to the different envelope characteristics of urban environment
cases (80LR and 20HR), the difference was similar for the different
floors, with an average of 8%, as also seen in the annual analysis.
These results highlight the importance of considering the urban
environment in thermo-energy simulations, especially in relation
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
Fig. 11. Cooling load per floor for Office 1.
Fig. 12. Cooling load per floor for Office 2.
to the floors closest to the ground, since it reveals a difference
of up to 29% in the load between cases with and without urban
context and a difference of up to 24% for the different floors of a
building in urban environment cases.
3.3.3. Annual thermal load per orientation
The orientation analysis was performed from the load values
(kWh/m²/year) obtained for each thermal zone (ZN, ZS, ZL, ZO and
ZC) for each floor. The results were presented as boxplot graphs
for Office 1 (Fig. 13) and Office 2 (Fig. 14) per thermal zone (upper
horizontal axis) and per case (lower horizontal axis).
41
In all cases without the urban environment considered, it is
possible to observe the low variation in the cooling load for the
different floors, which is exceptionally low (1–4%) when the top
and ground floors are not taken into account. It is also worth not-
ing that the values for the cases without the urban environment
considered (in green) in all zones are always above the values for
the cases where the urban environment is considered.
In all scenarios there was also a low load variation between
floors in the central zone. This is the only zone that does not have
direct contact with the external environment and thus requires a
lower charge for cooling since it has no direct contact with solar
radiation.
Considering each orientation separately, there was a greater
variation in the load for the different floors for the Office 1 (up
to 37%) in relation to the Office 2 (up to 23%) cases, especially
in zones with more obstructed façades. This greater variation can
be explained by the fact that Office1_N and S are more densely
packed, and therefore there is a greater difference between the
load values of the lower floors (with greater obstruction than Of-
fice 2 - Fig. 15) and the higher floors. The greatest variation oc-
curs at the east and west façades, as these have the greatest dif-
ference in terms of direct radiation obstruction for the different
floors, mainly in the denser cases (Fig. 16) compared to the less
dense cases (Fig. 17), followed by the south façade scenarios for Of-
fice1_N and Office2_N and the north facade scenarios for Office1_S
and Office2_S.
Thus, the results for the thermal load by orientation showed
that the more obstructed the façades (the denser the urban con-
text) the greater the difference in the load between floors will be
in the same zone. This difference is smaller, however, for the main
façades of the buildings, facing the street, because they are at a
greater distance from the surrounding buildings.
4. Discussion
Some considerations were made from the computational simu-
lations carried out for office buildings within different urban con-
texts in Maceió, city characterized by a hot and humid tropical cli-
mate.
The importance of considering different modifications associ-
ated with the presence of urban surroundings in the computational
simulations (related to climate and the geometry of the urban en-
vironment) was noted, since the results showed an average reduc-
tion in the cooling load of 16–18% for the cases with the urban
environment geometry in relation to the cases without it.
It was observed that, in the modeling, the modification related
to the urban geometry had a greater impact on the annual thermal
load (average reduction of 20%) compared to the modification of
the weather file (increase of 3%). Detailed analysis of the impact
of the urban geometry modeling also showed that shading from
the surrounding buildings had a strong influence on the thermal
load (14–16%), while the impact of solar reflection was limited (3–
4%). The climatic modification indicated that the UHI effect, from
an energy point of view, did not result in a large increase in the
cooling load, since the building operating hours (8 am to 6 pm)
do not coincide with the time of greatest temperature differences
between the rural EPW(INMET 2016) and urban EPW (UWG) files.
The cases analyzed were comprised of four variables: (i) build-
ing type, (ii) location of the building lot, (iii) type of urban context,
and (iv) envelope characteristics of the surrounding buildings (for
the cases with urban environment geometry).
It was possible to draw the following conclusions in relation to
the above variables. For variable (i), regarding the annual thermal
load, the Office 1 building type had significantly lower loads than
the Office 2 building type, since the perimeter zones correspond to
95% of the area of each floor in Office 2 and to only 70% in Office
42 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44

Fig. 13. Cooling load per orientation for Office 1.

Fig. 14. Cooling load per orientation for Office 2.

1. In relation to variable (ii), there were no significant differences
in the load between the north or south locations of the buildings
analyzed in the lots, and the loads of the buildings located in the
north lot (main façade facing north) always gave slightly higher
values, since the north façade receives direct radiation for 60% of
the hours of the year while the south façade receives direct radi-
ation for 40% of the hours of the year. The results for the type of
urban context (iii) showed that the greater the urban densification
the lower the cooling loads required will be, since shading is a ma-
jor influencing factor in terms of the thermal load.
Considering the parametric variation of the envelop character-
istics of the surrounding buildings in cases with the urban envi-
ronment factor (iv), it was possible to observe that the higher the
reflectance of the surrounding buildings the greater the cooling
 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
Fig. 15. Shade mask of the north façade on the 2nd floor of Offices 1 (a) and 2 (b).
Fig. 16. Shade mask of the east façade (Office 1) on the 2nd floor (a) and 8th floor
(b).
load of the building analyzed will be and the larger the percent-
age glazed area the lower the cooling load of the building analyzed
will be. Thus, the lowest load required for the cooling of the build-
ing analyzed resulted from the combination of a low reflectance
environment and an 80% glazed area and the highest load from a
combination of high reflectance and a 20% glazed area. The differ-
ence in load between these two extremes was 8%. It is important
to emphasize that this difference should be lower when longwave
radiation is considered and that this result does not indicate that
buildings in an urban environment should have envelopes of low
reflectance and high WWR. It only indicates that the characteris-
tics of the urban environment, such as reflectance and WWR, have
43
Fig. 17. Shade mask of the east façade (Office 2) on the 2nd floor (a) and 14th floor
(b).
an influence on the thermal load analysis of buildings within ur-
ban contexts, and therefore must be taken into account in thermo-
energy simulations.
The results regarding the detailed thermal load (per month,
floor and orientation) were important to highlight the strong in-
fluence of incident solar radiation on vertical surfaces of the urban
cases in relation to the thermal load, emphasizing the importance
and necessity of considering the urban environment geometry in
thermo-energy simulations of buildings in urban centers.
The monthly analysis showed that the low annual difference
(1%) between the cooling load values for cases located in the north
and south lots is not constant throughout the year. In the monthly
results the difference is significant in winter (7%).
For different floors, there was a strong influence of shading
caused by the urban environment geometry on the thermal load of
the building analyzed, especially for floors closest to the ground,
since the thermal load required for each floor in the urban cases
increased with ascending floors. The maximum difference between
floors for the cases with the urban environment factor, consider-
ing the whole building, was 24%. This finding was reinforced by
the results for the orientation, which indicated a low variation in
the thermal load results for different floors for each case without
the urban environment factor included (1% when outliers are not
considered), while in cases where the urban environment geome-
try was considered this variation reached 25%, also neglecting the
outliers, and up to 37% considering them for the west orientation.
It was observed that, as expected, the central zone showed the
lowest load in relation to the perimeter zones, and there was lit-
tle difference in the loads for different floors. Thus, a design so-
lution aimed at lowering the energy consumption associated with
the cooling load may be the shifting of the vertical circulation area
from the central zone of the building, where it is commonly lo-
cated, to a perimeter zone, where there is low permanence and no
artificial air conditioning is required.
Thus, the strong impact of solar radiation in thermo-energy
analysis conducted through simulations that consider the urban
context was verified, and the importance of shading in cities with
a hot climate was highlighted, since it has a positive influence on
44 I. Lima et al. / Energy & Buildings 182 (2019) 30–44
the comfort of users in this climate and reduces the energy con-
sumption associated with the cooling load.
Finally, it is pointed out that this methodology can be applied
to other climates, as long as the tool used to modify the weather
file (n this research the UWG) has validation for a climate at least
similar to the one that the research will be applied. However, in
order for the results to be compared with the present research, the
building to be analyzed must have simulation parameters similar
to those presented here for the building analyzed.
5. Conclusions
The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of the urban
environment geometry on the thermal load of conditioned office
buildings in a city with a hot and humid climate, based on com-
putational simulations that aggregate climatic and geometric mod-
ifications related to the urban context.
Based on the results reported, it was concluded that the ur-
ban environment geometry cannot be ignored in computational
thermo-energy simulations of buildings within urban contexts, es-
pecially in relation to the floors closest to the ground, where a re-
duction of up to 29% in the cooling load was observed in the sim-
ulations where the urban environment geometry was considered.
The results also provided evidence that current building simu-
lation software is not suitable for analyzing satisfactorily all of the
major changes caused by the urban context in terms of the annual
energy performance of buildings.
In addition, it was concluded that considering the climatic con-
text and the cases analyzed, urban densification, from the energy
point of view, can be considered a good urban strategy to re-
duce the thermal loads of commercial buildings with daytime work
hours, since the consideration of surrounding buildings in the sim-
ulations resulted in an average reduction of around 16–18% in the
cooling load.
The main limitations of this study are that the impact of wind
pattern modification was not analyzed and the effects of longwave
radiation exchange between buildings was not investigated due to
the high computational cost.
Declarations of interest
None.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by CAPES (Brazilian government
agency).
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