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Article
Rapid Estimation of Sky-View Factor and Its Application to Human-Environment
Journal of the Human-Environment System (2004)
  • Mohammad Uddin, East Tennessee State University
  • Jun-ichiro Tsutsum, University of Ryukyus
Abstract
It is common practice to parameterize urban canyon geometry as a sky view factor to be used to estimate surface radiation budgets. However, it is found that existing techniques of the computation of sky view factors are tedious, time consuming, erroneous and has often limited to just a few study cases. A fully automated digital approach to calculate sky view factors from fisheye photos is presented here. The validity of the new automated technique was tested by a series of inter comparison with other manual methods, which produces nearly identical results. The technique was applied in real conditions and it was found that increased sky obstruction significantly decreases the loss of long wave radiation in the nighttime and thus affects cooling rates.
Keywords
  • urban canyon geometry,
  • sky view factor,
  • fisheye photo,
  • nocturnal long wave radiation
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
DOI
10.1618/jhes.7.83
Citation Information
Mohammad Uddin and Jun-ichiro Tsutsum. "Rapid Estimation of Sky-View Factor and Its Application to Human-Environment" Journal of the Human-Environment System Vol. 7 Iss. 2 (2004) p. 83 - 87
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mohammad-uddin/14/