Bioclimatic potential of European locations: GIS supported study of proposed passive building design strategies

Abstract

According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, Europe is under the influence of at least ten different climate types. Thus, various climates can be found, from the polar tundra and cold climate in the Alps and northern European regions, to hot-arid climate in southern parts of Spain. This level of climate diversity makes the European territory interesting for the analysis from the bioclimatic building design perspective. Therefore, the purpose of the research was to assess the bioclimatic potential of selected European locations. The calculation of bioclimatic potential was done by acquiring the typical meteorological year (TMY) data comprised of climate characteristics, such as air temperature, air relative humidity and received solar irradiance, which was later processed by BcChart tool. In order to make bioclimatic potential maps of Europe, the points with uniform point sampling were generated. Furthermore, several additional locations of great interest were selected based on population density. The bioclimatic potential was used to define the prevailing passive building design strategies and measures at the analysed locations. At the same time, the in-depth analysis was conducted using the geospatial data and GIS tools, where the bioclimatic potential results at the selected locations were additionally analysed in relation to Köppen-Geiger climate types. The resulting bioclimatic potential maps can be used as a relevant onset for the policy makers in order to improve regional development strategies for building design.