Smart City Sensing – Thermal Screening of Physical Objects and Air-quality at Urban Scale

We provide innovations in the field of  urban data acquisition as well as urban data analytics. Three dimensional microclimatic models are
created based on extensive radiative measurement. For data acquisition dedicated detector instruments mounted on drones are used. We focus on detailed thermal environmental analysis in urban environments.

WHAT WE ADDRESS

To improve a city’s environmental condition and infrastructure effectively and understand its optimization potentials detailed knowledge on the situation is mandatory. Currently, an integrated and comprehensive data basis with frequently collected up-to-date thermal and air quality digital information on city level is missing or fragmented. Drones equipped with infrared cameras and sensors are able to efficiently scan urban districts. Specialized digital image processing software turns the photographs into-three dimensional models and links them to existing city models. Currently most studies and building simulations in this field focus on individual buildings and use simple and standardized assumptions for the buildings environment.  Measurements are either done for single or few spots or carried out via high flying planes or satellite data. To achieve optimal results relevant for thermal comfort, it is essential to analyse microclimatic entities, including several buildings as well as their surroundings. For this purpose we are using drones to acquire extensive data within the urban structures.

WHAT WE STAND FOR

We adress innovations in acquisition and sensing as well as densification of geo-referenced city related data with novel processing chains in city data analytics. The core of the innovative service we provide lies in the thermal data acquisition from aerial images on an urban or district level resulting in a 3D thermal and air pollutant representation of urban structures. City-scale aerial thermal and air-quality mapping in 3D enables insights beyond that of pure simulation based on static GIS and cadastral register data. Therefore we focus on small-scale thermal environment analysis, especially intra urban heat islands (IUHI), as well as on concentration levels of major pollutants.

We have developed a modern numeric method to create highly resolved thermal outdoor comfort maps based on the human anatomy and very detailed in-situ measurements.

INNOVATION

  • A new testing method and continuous process chain to identify critical spots in the districts,
  • A new numeric method to evaluate outdoor thermal comfort with high resolution
  • Interactive planning tool for improvements for outdoor thermal environment and air-quality assessment at quarter level
  • Analysis of dependencies and correlations for potential descriptive or predictive models
  • Potential new models for the microclimatic description of the thermal environment in urban
  • Interactive Decision support-guidelines for urban planners and public authorities