PTAD: A web-based climate service for building design adaptation

Abstract

Projections Tool for Architectural Design (PTAD) is a web-based climate service product available at www.ptad.mju.ac.th. Targeted at building owners and designers, it is intended to support these decision makers in building design to reduce the impacts of climate change. This study presents the technical environment of PTAD and provides a conceptual basis for linking academic information on climate change to building-related data with the cooperation of the relevant authorities. The PTAD development concept was divided into three parts: climate change impact assessment in small areas (i.e., at a construction site scale), building damage analysis of the impacts, and climate-resilient recommendations for building design. Tools such as GIS, HEC-RAS, and ERDAS and the existing outputs of regional climate models were used as the baseline data for analyzing the impacts that may occur at the study site. The impacts in small areas and design strategies to reduce the potential damage were analyzed with the Delphi technique using existing standards and guidelines. A 3-tier architecture was employed for the production and development environments by modularizing the user interface, service object, and data storage layers. The impact data values, namely, the highest annual surface temperatures and flood characteristics, including the maximum flood level, flood duration, and water velocity from 1998 to 2047, were displayed as markers on the satellite maps, tables, and figures. The impacts can be linked to architectural design guidelines to help design buildings that mitigate some of the impacts of climate change.