A new workflow for the determination of the urban building energy modeling (UBEM) framework and a case study in Turkey

Urban areas have an important role in accelerating global warming by releasing CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and increasing the environmental temperature by creating a heat island. Therefore, practices such as Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM), which can improve energy efficiency in urban areas, are important steps to create a healthier and more sustainable urban environment. This study aims to create a feasible and practical model framework to model urban areas and estimate energy demand at the urban scale. The model framework created is intended to be applicable to urban areas in countries experiencing situations such as a lack of building stock systems and datasets, the need to create extra algorithms, difficulties in obtaining actual energy consumption data, etc. In this direction, three separate UBEM frameworks were created with the City Energy Analyst (CEA), Spacemaker-Revit, and UBEM.IO tools. These UBEM frameworks were examined in terms of analyzing the energy demand of a TOKİ site consisting of 13 blocks located in Ankara's Mamak district. The energy demand analyses made within the UBEM frameworks created for the case study were compared with the annual energy consumption data of the area and the most applicable UBEM framework was determined for the specified situations. The energy usage intensity of the case study is 232.78 kWh/m2.year and it was seen that the closest result was obtained from the model framework created with the Spacemaker-Revit with 214 kWh/m2.year. It was determined that this UBEM framework was the most effective model framework among those examined due to it is relatively more flexible in terms of data entry, allows the evaluation of urban microclimate conditions, and allows connections between various analysis tools by easily exporting. In this respect, it was determined that the most applicable model framework for urban areas in countries experiencing difficulties for the reasons stated in the creation of UBEM was the UBEM framework created with Spacemaker-Revit.