NOCRAM availability AND Mapped data for air temperature (BLUEWS)

[HibaHamdi09]

NOCRAM availability: In the paper UMEP - An integrated tool for urban climatology and climate-sensitive planning applications ( Lindberg 2015), the module NOCRAM is mentioned. In the context of my Ph.D on urban heat islands, I need to produce night air temperature maps. Could you tell me if this module will be available soon as a plug-in and/or as a source code?

Mapped data for air temperature (BLUEWS) : After searching in the literature and manuals, I only found validation plots of predicted air temperature against ground truth values. Is it possible to generate a map of air temperature from BLUEWS outputs?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[biglimp]

I am in the stage of incorporating the urban weather generator (https://github.com/ladybug-tools/uwg) into UMEP. That will produce the output you are looking for. Maybe you are interested in collaborating in this work? Are you familiar with Python?

[HibaHamdi09]

Thank you for your reply.
If I understood correctly, the UWG would allow me to generate day and night air temperature maps?
Is it already possible to do this with the python codes provided on github? Or shall I wait for the incorporation in UMEP (QGIS)?

I mostly work with remote sensing data and I’m looking to produce air temperature maps for calibration and validation purposes. I have a basic level in Python and I’m not very familiar with your model so, for now, I’m not sure how I could help you. But If I develop something that may be useful for you, I will be happy to share it.

And of course, your model will be cited in case of publication!

[biglimp]

You could use UWG as it is. The incorporation in UMEP will include data preparation and post processing for UWG, directly in QGIS.

[biglimp]

I am doing it inbetween other things so I could not tell you an exact date but hopefully before the end of this year.

[HibaHamdi09]

thank you for your reactivity! And good luck

[HibaHamdi09]

Great! Could you tell me please when the incorporation in UMEP would be finished?

[biglimp]

Maybe in a couple of months

[rarygit]

@biglimp

If it helps, just one observation regarding incorporating the UWG model.

These peer reviews were rather scathing of the UWG rural model assumptions (Bueno et al) when incorporated into another model:
https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/961/2021/gmd-14-961-2021-discussion.html
https://gmd.copernicus.org/preprints/gmd-2019-176/gmd-2019-176-RC1.pdf
https://gmd.copernicus.org/preprints/gmd-2019-176/gmd-2019-176-RC2.pdf

The VCWG model was subsequently revised to address these issues
https://gmd.copernicus.org/preprints/gmd-2019-176/gmd-2019-176-AC1-supplement.pdf
"In brief, we have replaced the rural model, which originally had too many unjustified constants, with a well-established surface layer model, i.e. the Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory (MOST). This fundamental change has resulted in improved performance of the VCWG model. "

[rarygit]

Directly tested OK early this morning in QGIS v3.16 python console/editor, Ubuntu 20.04, python v3.9.2

Should run on all OSes with this modification to the main python script, VCWGv132.py
i.e. add the path to the folder which contains sub-folder UWG

For example, in my case the path is:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/media/l1nux/BAK3_SEA4TB/ALL_Unsorted/VCWG132/VCWGv132/')
from UWG import UWG

VCWGv132_py_only.zip

As stated in the VCWG manual, don't forget to discard output for the first 24 hours.

I believe it will be up to us to make the translation of VCWG to python 3.
Using "2to3" has worked in relation to "accepted" syntax changes.
Without any fiurther optimisation of numpy
(using Geany to quick search for "numpy" in files in UWG sub-folder: DragTurb.py, ColModel.py, RadiationFunctions.py, NumericalSolver.py etc)

You could correspond with Amir directly on his GitHub page to see if his team (Uni Guelph) can work directly within Python 3.
Especially to facilitate its incoporation into UMEP. I think this would be persuasive.

[biglimp]

Did you not submit your P3 translation to Amir? As he is maintainer of VCWG, he should be the one who has the code since he might update the model etc.

[rarygit]

Yes, I did

I just checked Amir's GitHub repo and 12 hours ago he updated VCWG to v1.4.5
The documentation states that it requires Python 2.7.13 amd64
https://github.com/AmirAAliabadi/VCWGv1.4.5

I have posted an issue there and ask Amir if he would like to join our discussion here, regarding UMEP and the development of VCWG in P3.

AmirAAliabadi/VCWGv1.4.5#1

Notwithstanding that option, I took the view that we are taking the initiative as VCWG is a better option for UMEP than UWG.
If it comes to that, you/I could compare v1.4.5 with 1.3.2 and see which files were changed.
That would mean reducing the number of v1.4.5 scripts to convert to P3

[AmirAAliabadi]

Dear All,

Thank you for considering VCWG and trying v1.3.2 and v1.4.5. Both versions are essentially the same with v1.4.5 including renewable energy options. Both versions are designed to run on Python 2.7. We currently do not have the resources to translate these versions from Python 2.7 to 3. So you may wish to try to translate them with your own effort. Please note that the publications pertaining to these versions are available here:

Moradi, M., Dyer, B., Nazem, A., Nambiar, M. K., Nahian, M. R., Bueno, B., Mackey, C., Vasanthakumar, S., Nazarian, N., Krayenhoff, E. S., Norford, L. K., & Aliabadi, A. A. (2021), 'The Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG v1.3.2)', Geoscientific Model Development, 14(2), 961-984, doi:10.5194/gmd-14-961-2021.

Aliabadi, A. A., Moradi, M., McLeod, R. M., Calder, D., & Dernovsek, R. (2021), 'How Much Building Renewable Energy Is Enough? The Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG v1.4.4)', Atmosphere, 12(7), 882, doi:10.3390/atmos12070882.

The good news is that we have yet developed a new version of VCWG v2.0.0 which completely runs on Python 3. This is an improved model which 1) offers hydrological modelling, and 2) in addition to MOST, it offers the ability to be forced from the top of the urban domain using mesoscale data products (e.g. ERA-5 pressure levels). In fact, with this option the rural model can be bypassed in this version. However, due to more physical modelling, this version has greater number of input variables (soil parameters, vegetation parameters, etc.). You can read more about this version here:

Moradi, M., Krayenhoff E. S., & Aliabadi, A. A. (2022), 'A comprehensive indoor-outdoor urban climate model with hydrology: The Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG v2.0.0)', Building and Environment, 207(B), 108406, doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108406.

Moradi, M. (2021), Ph.D., 'The Vertical City Weather Generator', University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.

We do not intend to publish VCWG v2.0.0 on GitHub yet, but we will be happy to provide it to you privately on dropbox (etc.) You can include it in UMEP. The license is GNU General Public License v3.0. We like to continue this conversation via email. Please contact me at [email protected] and introduce yourselves and affiliations.

Regards,
Amir A. Aliabadi

[rarygit]

@AmirAAliabadi
Many thanks for the quick reply and the lucid description of VCWG v2, running on Python 3.
Your article (doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108406) comprehensively presents this latest model.
I have a few questions regarding the subcanopy convective fluxes and urban pipe drainage, so I will continue this conversation via email.

@biglimp
I hope that VCWG v2 can now be integrated into UMEP.
I am happy to help with the testing.

[biglimp]

Thanks Amir. We will wait to include VGWG v2 in UMEP until it is properly released in a Github repo.