Interactive Urban Heat Island Assessment: Dynamic Data Fusion in Digital Twins
AUTHORS
Joie Lim (1), Marcel Ignatius (1), B. Gottkehaskamp (2), and Nyuk Hien Wong (1)
(1) Department of Built Environment, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
(2) Chair of Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design, TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
ABSTRACT
Studies have developed processes and standards to address the technical challenges of integrating heterogeneous data sources into unified or interoperable systems for Urban Digital Twin (UDT). While there are impressive implementations using this data for simulations and studies, many solutions result in static ways to display and interact with information, especially out of the box. This research explores the combination of data from different sources with an interactive user interface, enabling sensor data and simulation findings to be conveyed more effectively to decision makers and the public. It focuses on microclimate and thermal comfort studies in the context of urban heat island assessments, offering new use case scenarios for UDT. As part of an ongoing campus-wide microclimate assessment under the Baselining, Evaluating, Action, and Monitoring (BEAM) initiative, weather stations, thermal cameras, and meteorological towers have been installed. Complementary data, including street view images, smartwatch responses, indoor measurements, and building energy simulations, are integrated into several interactive views. One such view, the thermal walk, combines 360-degree street view imagery, mobile weather station data, and smartwatch responses to illustrate how urban morphological features affect thermal conditions. Other views display weather stations and thermal camera data, combining surface temperatures with information like nearby temperatures, wind speeds, and indoor measurements, revealing the impact of building surface treatments on thermal conditions inside and outside the building over time. These interactive views provide context to understand the links between the data and communicate key factors impacting heat islands and their mitigation strategies.
KEYWORDS
Urban Digital Twin, Urban Heat Island, Microclimate Sensors, Street View Imagery, Infrared Thermography