Impact of Urban Morphology on Energy Consumption of Vertical Mobility in Asian Cities—A Comparative Analysis with 3D City Models

Abstract

Sustainable development of cities and the overall efficiency of urban infrastructure have emerged as central issues in policy consideration. Consequently, investigating the influence of urban physical form on resource use is critical. This paper investigates energy use due to vertical mobility in the context of Asia’s diverging cities. Micro mobility of citizens’ movement in the vertical direction has a distinct impact on the total energy consumption of a city or urban block. The objective of this research is to analyse the impact of different urban morphologies on vertical mobility—from buildings to urban blocks. A methodology is proposed to calculate energy consumption of lifts, based on a detailed review of literature, codes of practice, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)/DIS 25745-1 standard and 3D city models. Furthermore, a tool is developed and applied in 20 typical urban blocks in four cities: Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Singapore. The average annual specific energy consumption of lifts varies significantly across the samples. A comparative analysis of all the morphologies across these cities help to understand the impact of building forms, usage, and a number of further parameters on the energy consumption for vertical mobility.