Abstract
Urbanization is leading us to a more chaotic state where healthy living becomes a prime concern. The high-rise buildings influence the urban setting with a high shadow rate on surroundings that can have no positive impact on the general neighborhood. Nevertheless, shadows are the main factor of defeatist virtual settings, they are expensive to render in real-time. This paper investigates how the amount of sunlight varies by season and how seasons can indicate the time of year to understand how shadows vary in length at different times of the day and how they change over the seasons. We propose a novel efficient (fast and scalable) algorithm to calculate a 2.5D cast-shadow map from a given LiDAR-derived Digital Surface Model (DSM). We present a proof-of-concept demonstration to examine the technical practicability of the introduced algorithm. Tensor-based techniques such as singular value decomposition, tensor unfolding are examined and deployed to represent the multidimensional data. The proposed method exploits horizon mapping ideas and extends the method to a modern graphics algorithm (Bresenham’s line drawing algorithm) to account for the DSM’s underlying surface geometry. A proof-of-concept is developed utilizing Python’s TensorFlow library, exploring data flow graphs and the tensor data structure. The heavy computer graphics algorithm used in this paper is parallelized using PySpark. Results explicate significant enhancements in overall performance while preserving accuracy at negligible variations.
Highlights
Received: 16 June 2021Accepted: 24 August 2021Published: 28 August 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articleSolar Access has become an essential concern for urban planning and building design.Access to sunlight is a necessary element of a healthy individual thermic relief for inhabitable buildings
Sustainable development is the key to urban planning and development
Researchers from various perspectives [32,33,34] investigate the requirement for shadow analysis by showing how solar access or shadow influences the city planning norms
Summary
Solar Access has become an essential concern for urban planning and building design. Access to sunlight is a necessary element of a healthy individual thermic relief for inhabitable buildings. Direct sunlight is essential in architecture for psychic health reasons and reduces electric lighting and energy saving. Spatial analysis [1] in an urban environment often requires evaluating shadow points given a specific date and time, precisely associated with the solar position and shared representation of spatial obstructions such as buildings. Several zonal authorities require light concerns to be spoken as part of the marking. Shadow studies explain the value of development concerning sun and daylight access to the neighboring settings, that includes encompassing buildings. The following scenarios make shadow calculation a crucial aspect of urban planning, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
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