Calculation of Urban Morphology Parameterisations for London for use with the ADMS-Urban Dispersion Model

Abstract

Two algorithms have been developed to parameterise the urban morphology of a large urban area, for use with the ADMS-Urban dispersion model. One algorithm calculates parameterisations of the urban canopy, as gridded values of average building height; average street canyon width; ratio of building plan area to grid cell area; and for a user-specified set of wind direction sectors, the ratio of the frontal area of the buildings to grid cell area. The second algorithm calculates parameterisations of the street canyon for individual streets for both sides of the street: canyon height, width, and length. The input data for both algorithms are detailed vector datasets of building and road geometry. The algorithms have been implemented as ArcPy Python tools within ArcGIS. Results are presented for London, calculated for the project Coupled Urban and Regional processes: Effects on AIR quality (CUREAIR). These results used building and road geometry from Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography.