The urban canyon model has been recurrently used as a basis for many solar access studies. However, its conception as endless structures disregards the effect of street intersections, despite being characteristic elements of urban fabrics. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of street discontinuities on solar access over building façades. The potential of crossings to increase the available radiation has been assessed through computer simulations in dense urban environments in a Mediterranean location. For the cases studied, results show that local effects of an intersection almost disappear beyond a specific distance for each aspect ratio, which can be helpful to determine the suitable level of detail for solar analyses at an urban fabric scale.

Part of the Project MUM – Mediterranean Urban Morphology characterization.
Authors: Elena Garcia-Nevado  , Anna Pages-Ramon and Helena Coch