Developing a framework for urban building life cycle energy map with a focus on rapid visual inspection and image processing

The United Nations has predicted a fast pace of worldwide migration into urban areas by the year 2030 that may result in arbitrary growth of cities, leading to adverse environmental impacts and unplanned energy use. As building sector consumes more energy compared to other sectors, understanding urban building energy use is critical to aid in energy reduction goals. This research introduces visual inspection and image processing as methods for compiling building inventory needed for future building energy modelling efforts. A preliminary urban building life cycle energy map for a case study of commercial buildings that contains embodied energy and operating energy as different layers is presented. The map will provide policy makers with insights on different temporal stages of energy consumption in buildings at the urban scale.