The use of SOLENE-microclimat model to assess adaptation strategies at the district scale

Given the current need for a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of urban development to achieve the goal of sustainable cities, knowledge of urban microclimates is essential to control the UHI effect, conduct urban amenity studies and monitor energy consumption. Modeling offers a way for enhancing this knowledge and it also constitutes a decision-making support system for establishing effective urban environmental policies. We present the SOLENE-microclimat model dedicated to modeling urban microclimate and building thermal behavior. We first explain the modeling approach, based on the coupling of radiative, thermal and CFD models and show how it has been enhanced to handle a large range of cases now encountered in urban projects: modeling of vegetation, water ponds, bare ground, building energy simulation, and technics such as surface water aspersion. Several illustrations are given to show how this tool has been used to assess and compare climate adaptation and/or mitigation measures based on vegetation: trees, lawns, green walls and roofs. Having both the building and the district scales, as well as the detailed description of all the fluxes, we distinguish the direct and indirect effects of theses measures on building energy consumption and highlight the dominant effects. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.