Evolutionary-driven search for solar building models using LiDAR data

The search for solar buildings is one of the primary challenges in urban planning, especially when developing self-sustainable cities. This work uses an evolutionary approach for finding the optimal building model based on airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) laser-scanned data, regarding solar potential. The method considers self-adaptive differential evolution for solving the constrained optimisation problem. In the experiments, the effect of different buildings' layouts and design parameters were analysed regarding solar irradiance. Rectangular, T and L-shaped buildings were considered with various design parameters: position, building rotation, facades' height, roof's height and slope. The experiments confirmed that the method can efficiently find the solar building design with maximum solar potential within constrained optimisation space. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.