Urban scale ventilation analysis based on neighborhood normalized current model

Abstract

With increasing urbanization, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has become a critical urban environmental problem. Many factors affect the formation of UHIs, and urban canopy ventilation is considered a crucial method for reducing the UHI effect. This study proposed an improved ventilation corridor (VC) identification method known as the neighborhood normalized current model (NN-CM). This method uses neighborhood normalization to improve VC identification based on circuit theory. Considering Wuhan, China, as the research area using three-dimensional building data, urban ventilation environment simulation experiments under different wind directions were conducted on a 100 m grid. The results were compared, and computation fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was used to verify the proposed method. Compared with the original VC analysis method based on circuit theory, the proposed method reduced the subjectivity of the analysis results. Further, compared with other methods, the new method was advantageous in analysis result coverage, dynamic wind direction simulation, and data throughput. The CFD verification confirmed that the NN-CM exhibits high reliability.