Integrating Urban Heat Island Impact into Building Energy Assessment in a Hot-Arid City

Abstract

Dense cities usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect, resulting in higher ambient temperatures and increased cooling loads. However, the typical lack of combining climatic variables with building passive design parameters in significant evaluations hinders the consideration of the UHI effect during the building design stage. In that regard, a global sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the significance of climatic variables and building design features in building energy simulations for an office building. Additionally, this study examines the UHI effect on building energy performance in Qatar, a hot-arid climate, using both measurement data and computational modeling. This study collects measurement data across Qatar and conducts computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations; the results from both methods serve as inputs in building energy simulation (BES). The results demonstrate that space cooling demand is more sensitive to ambient temperature than other climatic parameters, building thermal properties, etc. The UHI intensity is high during hot and transition seasons and reaches a maximum of 13 °C. BES results show a 10% increase in cooling energy demand for an office building due to the UHI effect on a hot day. The results of this study enable more informed decision-making during the building design process.