Energy performance simulation for planning a low carbon neighborhood urban district: A case study in the city of Macau

The concept of a low carbon city has been widely discussed. The research in low carbon city simulation at the community level, however, is still underexplored. A GIS-based simulation model was proposed for testing how urban form and building typology affect energy performance and carbon emissions. Two urban districts in the City of Macau were chosen as sample test cases based on two approaches of carbon emissions analysis, land use-based and building simulation methods. The result shows that the building simulation method is 20% more accurate than the land use based-method in comparison to the actual measurement by including the factor of building shape in the simulations. The analytical results of energy performance, carbon emissions and solar availability were then used to derive urban design guidelines to move the city development toward a low carbon future.