Evolutionary-driven search for solar building models using LiDAR data

The search for solar buildings is one of the primary challenges in urban planning, especially when developing self-sustainable cities. This work uses an evolutionary approach for finding the optimal building model based on airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) laser-scanned data, regarding solar potential. The method considers self-adaptive differential evolution for solving the constrained optimisation problem. In the experiments, the effect of different buildings’ layouts and design parameters were analysed regarding solar irradiance. Rectangular, T and L-shaped buildings were considered with various design parameters: position, building rotation, facades’ height, roof’s height and slope. The experiments confirmed that the method can efficiently find the solar building design with maximum solar potential within constrained optimisation space. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.