Work

Assessing the Impact of Building Surface Materials on Local Thermal Environment Using Infrared Thermal Imagery and Microclimate Simulations

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The built environment is responsible for 40% of global energy demand, and, in line with urbanisation and population growth, this demand is expected to increase steadily. Urban areas are mostly composed of materials that can absorb energy from solar radiation and dissipate the accumulated energy in the form of heat. This study integrates a UAV-based Zenmuse XT S IR camera and handheld FLIR C5 thermal camera with ENVI-met microclimate simulation, providing quantitative insights for sustainable urban planning. From the 24 h experiment results, the characteristics of building surface materials are profiled for lowering energy use for internal thermal control during the operation stage of buildings. This study shows that building surface materials with the lowest solar reflectance and highest specific heat capacity reached a peak surface temperature of 73.5 °C in Jakarta (tropical hot climate) and 44.3 °C in Xiamen (subtropical late winter climate). In contrast, materials with the highest solar reflectance and lowest specific heat only reach a peak surface temperature of 58.1 °C in Jakarta and 27.9 °C in Xiamen. The peak surface temperature occurs at 2 PM in the afternoon. Moreover, we demonstrate the capability of an infrared drone to identify the peak surface temperatures of 55.8 °C at 2 PM in the study area in Xiamen. In addition, the ENVI-met validated model shows satisfactory correlation values of R > 0.9 and R2 > 0.8. This result demonstrates UAV-IR and ENVI-met simulation integration as a scalable method for city-level UHI diagnostics and monitoring.

Source: Buildings

DOI: 10.3390/buildings16020334

Authors: Ryan Jonathan, Tao Lin, Isaac Lun, Samuel D. Widijatmoko, Yu-Ting Tang

Institutions: University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Urban Environment, University of Birmingham

Language: English

Topic: Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action, Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137