Sustainable Block Design Process for High-Rise and High-Density Districts with Snow and Wind Simulations for Winter Cities

Takuya Tsutsumi,Kosuke Maeda,Zhiming Guo,Norihiro Watanabe,Daiki Iwakuni,Tsuyoshi Setoguchi

doi:10.3390/su9112132

Abstract

Urban designs that consider regional climatic conditions are one of the most important approaches for developing sustainable cities. In cities that suffer from heavy snow and cold winds in winter, an urban design approach different than that used for warm cities should be used. This study presents a scientific design process (the sustainable design approach) that incorporates environmental and energy assessments that use snow and wind simulations to establish guidelines for the design of urban blocks in high-rise and high-density districts so that the impact of snow and wind can be minimized in these cities. A city block in downtown Sapporo, Japan, was used as a case study, and we evaluated four conceptual models. The four models were evaluated for how they impacted the snow and wind conditions in the block as well as the snow removal energy. Based on the results, we were able to identify the design guidelines in downtown Sapporo: an urban block design with higher building height ratio without the mid-rise part can reduce the snowdrifts and lower the snow removal energy. The proposed sustainable urban design approach would be effective in improving the quality of public spaces and reducing snow removal energy in winter cities.

Highlights

Urban design that considers snowy and windy conditions is ideal for cities that experience severe winters
Using a high-density block in downtown Sapporo, Hokkaido Japan, as a case study, this paper developed the desirable urban block design concepts in downtown Sapporo based on the sustainable urban design approach proposed in chapter 2.1 in order to verify the effectiveness of the new approach
This study considered urban block designs with high-rise and high-density buildings and their effects on the snow and wind conditions in public spaces, energy requirements, and CO2 emissions that would be produced in order to remove snow from a block in the downtown area of Sapporo, Japan

Summary

Introduction

Urban design that considers snowy and windy conditions is ideal for cities that experience severe winters (hereinafter referred to as winter cities). In traditional urban designs for winter cities, skywalks and atriums are often proposed Constructing these designs is expensive and a considerable amount of energy is required to heat them, which makes them less environmentally friendly. Designs that control such snowy or windy conditions can reduce the impact of these conditions and improve energy consumption in winter cities. Such designs consider, for example, where a building will be built and of what shape will it be. It is necessary to study and develop urban designs for buildings and public spaces that can minimize the impact of snow and strong winds in the downtown areas of winter cities

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Conclusion