Estimating the impacts of climate change and urbanization on building performance

While the scientific literature is full of studies looking at the impact of climate change driven by human activity, there is very little research on the impact of climate change or urban heat island on building operation and performance across the world. For this study, typical and extreme meteorological weather data were created for 25 locations (20 climate regions) to represent a range of predicted climate change and heat island scenarios for building simulation. Then a set of prototypical buildings were created to represent typical, good, and low-energy practices around the world. When these prototype buildings were simulated, the results provide a snapshot view of the impact of a wide variety of building performance based on the set of climate scenarios. These include location-specific responses of the prototype buildings including impacts on equipment use and longevity, fuel swapping as eating and cooling ratios change, impacts on environmental emissions, comfort issues, and how low-energy building design incorporating renewables can significantly mitigate any potential climate variation.