Giorgio Agugiaro

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Urbanism

In many countries, recent boosts in the construction and renovation sectors and energy efficiency directives are driving a growing interest in the built environment among designers and maintainers. In this context, customized software solutions tailored for Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Building Energy Modelling (BEM) are proving to be i...

Solar energy is becoming increasingly important with the transition towards green and sustainable energy. Predicting solar irradiance is one of the core steps to optimise solar energy utilisation when planning and scheduling power grids. Accurate solar irradiance prediction can also help forecast microclimate conditions, enabling the analysis of ci...

This paper describes the proposed methodology, the implementation, and the experience resulting from the further development of a tool, embedded in Rhinoceros/Grasshopper, that allows to perform preliminary environmental analyses at district scale in the case of a new planned building. The CAD-based parametric 3D model of a “new” building, generate...

With the increasing adoption of semantic 3D city models, the relevance of applications in the field of Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) has rapidly grown, as the building sector accounts for a large part of the total energy consumption. UBEM allows us to better understand the energy performance of the building stock and can contribute to defi...

In the last 15 years semantic 3D city models have seen a steady growth in terms of creation and adoption. Many cities world-wide have now at least one city model which can be used for several applications. Energy- and sustainability-related topics are among those that have experienced a noteworthy increase of interest from the Geomatics community....

This document introduces the process for the creation of a testbed for energy applications based on a semantic 3D city model for the municipality of Rijssen-Holten in The Netherlands. The creation of this dataset requires the consolidation from multiple data sources as well as a lot of manual work so the authors can warranty as much as possible the...

3D city models are frequently used to acquire and store energy-related information of buildings for energy applications. In this context, CityGML is the most common data model, and the Energy ADE, one of its most complex extensions, provides a systematic way of storing detailed energy-related data in XML format. Contrarily, even though CityGML’s JS...

In this paper, five commonly used software tools to estimate solar radiation in the urban context (GRASS GIS, ArcGIS, SimStadt, CitySim and Ladybug) are run on the same test site and are compared in terms of input data requirements, usability, and accuracy of the results. Spatial and weather data have been collected for an area located in the Brazi...

The 3D BAG v. 2.0 dataset has been recently released: it is a country-wide dataset containing all buildings in the Netherlands, modelled in multiple LoDs (LoD1.2, LoD1.3 and LoD2.2). In particular, the LoD2.2 allows differentiating between different thematic surfaces composing the building envelope. This paper describes the first steps to test and...

Worldwide, cities are nowadays formulating their own sustainability goals, including ambitious targets related to the generation and consumption of energy. In order to support decision makers in reaching these goals, energy experts typically rely on simulation models of urban energy systems, which provide a cheap and efficient way to analyze potent...

In many countries digital maps are generally created and provided by Cadastre, Land Registry or National Mapping Agencies. These maps must be accurate and well maintained. However, in most cases, the update process of these maps is still done by hand, often using satellite or aerial imagery. Supporting this process via automatic change detection ba...

3D city models are playing a growing role worldwide as sources of integrated information upon which different urban applications are developed. In the context of urban planning and design, semantic 3D city models can provide plenty of qualitative and quantitative information about the urban context and of the area(s) to be transformed. This paper t...

Open geospatial data and tools are an increasingly important paradigm offering the opportunity to promote the democratization of geographical information, the transparency of governments and institutions, as well as social, economic and environmental opportunities. During the past decade, developments in the area of open geospatial data and open-so...

In urban planning, a common unit of measure for housing density is the number of households per hectare. However, the actual size of the physical space occupied by a household, i.e., a dwelling, is seldom considered, neither in 2D nor in 3D. This article proposes a methodology to estimate the average size of a dwelling in existing urban areas from...

The organisational data models that support the information needs of utility network managers are proprietary and domain-specific, while the emerging national standards in this field often lack lifecycle data representation capabilities. However, multiple types of utility networks can be comprehensively represented with the free and open-source Uti...

Urban mining aims at reusing building materials enclosed in our cities. Therefore, it requires accurate information on the availability of these materials for each separate building. While recent publications have demonstrated that such information can be obtained using machine learning and data fusion techniques applied to hyperspectral imagery, c...

A bottom-up building energy modelling at the urban scale based on Geographic Information System and semantic 3D city models can provide quantitative insights to tackle critical urban energy challenges. Nevertheless, incomplete information is a common obstacle to produce reliable modelling results. The residential building heating demand simulation...

GIS has become an important part of many disciplines and supports a vast range of applications. It is used everywhere, from agriculture to public health care. Furthermore, with the advances in technologies, the availability of GIS data and software support has grown exponentially. In this paper, we present the results of our international survey to...

An investigation into the implementation state of open standards in software is currently ongoing through the ISPRS/EuroSDR ‘GeoBIM benchmark 2019’ initiative, which kicked off earlier this year. The benchmark activity provides a way of assessing and comparing the functionality of different software packages in GIS and BIM in terms of their ability...

In urban planning, a common unit of measurement for population density is the number of households per hectare. However, the actual size of the households is seldom considered, neither in 2D nor in 3D. This paper proposes a method to calculate the average size of the household in existing urban areas from available open data and to use it as a desi...

Smart management of urban built environment relies on the availability of data supporting sound policy making and guiding city renovation processes toward more sustainable and performant models. Nevertheless, public managers are unlikely to have comprehensive information on the existing building stock. In addition, tools providing effective insight...

An investigation into the implementation state of open standards in software is currently ongoing through the ISPRS/EuroSDR ‘GeoBIM benchmark 2019’ initiative, which kicked off earlier this year. The benchmark activity provides a way of assessing and comparing the functionality of different software packages in GIS and BIM in terms of their ability...

This chapter describes ICT solutions for planning, maintaining and assessing urban energy systems. There is no single urban energy system, but – like the city itself – a system of sub-systems with different scales, spatially ranging from buildings to blocks, districts and to the city, temporally ranging from real time data to hourly, daily, monthly...

Precise and comprehensive knowledge about 3D urban space is required for simulation and analysis in the fields of urban and environmental planning, city administration and disaster management. In order to facilitate these applications, geo-information about functional, semantic, and topographic aspects of urban features, their mutual dependencies a...

Recent advances in semantic 3D city modelling and a demand from utility network operators for multi-utility data models integration have contributed to the emergence of an open Application Domain Extension (ADE) of the CityGML data model tailored to multiple types of utility networks. This extension, called the Utility Network ADE, is still in acti...

The cities in which we live are constantly evolving. The active management of this evolution is referred to as urban planning. The according development process could go in many directions resulting in a large number of potential future scenarios of a city. The planning support system URBio adopts interactive optimization to assist urban planners i...

This chapter describes ICT solutions for planning, maintaining and assessing urban energy systems. There is no single urban energy system, but - like the city itself - a system of sub-systems with different scales, spatially ranging from buildings to blocks, districts and to the city, temporally ranging from real time data to hourly, daily, monthly...

Historic buildings are representations of cultural systems throughout time. Thus, it is important to shed light on any given historic building’s chronological information by means of restitution, that is, the descriptions of different (re)compositions of a building for different historical states. However, the representation of information beyond t...

The road towards achievement of the climate protection goals requires, among the rest, a thorough rethinking of the energy planning tools (and policies) at all levels, from local to global. Nevertheless, it is in the cities where the largest part of energy is produced and consumed, and therefore it makes sense to focus the attention particularly on...

Growing urbanisation, its related environmental impacts, and social inequalities in cities are challenges requiring a holistic urban planning perspective that takes into account the different aspects of sustainable development. One crucial point is to reconcile urban planning with environmental targets, which include decreasing energy demand and CO...

This paper describes a methodology to assess the energy performance of residential buildings starting from the semantic 3D city model of Vienna. Space heating, domestic hot water and electricity demand are taken into account. The paper deals with aspects related to urban data modelling, with particular attention to the energy-related topics, and w...

This is the user and installation manual of the free and open-source software available on GitHub at https://github.com/gioagu/3dcitydb_ade

This paper presents and discusses the first results regarding selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of energy-related datasets, chosen in order to enrich a CityGML-based semantic 3D city model of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models...

This paper presents and discusses the first results regarding selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of energy-related datasets, chosen in order to enrich a CityGML-based semantic 3D city model of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models...

This paper presents and discusses the results regarding the initial steps (selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of datasets) for the creation of an integrated, semantic, three-dimensional, and CityGML-based virtual model of the city of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as informatio...

Dieser Artikel beschreibt eine Methodik zur Berechnung von Energiebedarfswerten für Wohngebäude in der Stadt Wien. Als erster Schritt wurde der Heizwärmebedarfswert gemäß Richtlinie des Österreichischen Instituts für Bautechnik und ausgehend von einem CityGML-basierten 3D-Stadtmodell berechnet. Das semantische Stadtmodell diente als integrierte und...

This paper presents and discusses the results regarding the initial steps (selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of datasets) for the creation of an integrated, semantic, three-dimensional, and CityGML-based virtual model of the city of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as informatio...

This article presents the first results concerning the development and implementation of a tool for the estimation of the energy performance for residential buildings at city scale. Space heating and domestic hot water production are taken into account. Project “EnerCity” focuses on two main topics: (a) the creation of a CityGML-compliant 3D city m...

More and more cities are creating and adopting three-dimensional virtual city models as a means for data integration, harmonisation and storage, often based on CityGML, which is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models at urban and territorial scale. A centralised database can thus fost...

This chapter describes ICT solutions for planning, maintaining and assessing urban energy systems. There is no single urban energy system, but - like the city itself - a system of sub-systems with different scales, spatially ranging from buildings to blocks, districts and to the city, temporally ranging from real time data to hourly, daily, monthly...

This paper presents our research to develop a gesture-based 3D GIS system to engage the public in cultural heritage. It compares two types of interaction—device-based vs. natural interaction— and summarizes the beta-testing results of a 3D GIS tool for archaeology, called QueryArch3D, in which participants used device-based interaction (i.e. mouse...

Sempre più città si stanno dotando di modelli virtuali tridimensionali urbani come strumento di integrazione, armonizzazione e gestione di dati. Sempre più spesso, inoltre, lo standard internazionale CityGML viene adottato come modello informativo per modelli semantici a scala urbana e territoriale, poiché esso permette di gestire in modo coerente...

The MayaArch3D project aims to realize a web-based archaeological research platform bringing spatial and non-spatial databases together and providing visualization and analysis tools. Especially the 3D components of the platform use hierarchical segmentation concepts to structure the data and to perform queries on semantic entities.

Today the use of spaceborne Very High Resolution (VHR) optical sensors for automatic 3D information extraction is increasing in the scientific and civil communities. The 3D Optical Metrology (3DOM) unit of the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) in Trento (Italy) has collected VHR satellite imagery, as well as aerial and terrestrial data over Trento for...

More and more cities are moving towards the creation and adoption of three-dimensional virtual city models as a means for data integration, harmonisation and storage. To this purpose, CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models at urban and territorial scale. The automatic build...

Many important Cultural Heritage sites have been studied over long periods of time by different means of technical equipment, methods and intentions by different researchers. This has led to huge amounts of heterogeneous "traditional" datasets and formats. The rising popularity of 3D models in the field of Cultural Heritage in recent years has brou...

The paper presents the research carried out in the on-going 3DSolarWeb project to test and implement a complete pipeline for the generation of a solar cadastre of building roofs located in alpine areas. The project aims at providing reliable results in a costeffective way, using (low resolution) available data and new aerial imagery acquisitions as...

There is a need in the humanities for a 3D WebGIS with analytical tools that allow researchers to analyze 3D models linked to spatially referenced data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for complex spatial analysis of 2.5D data. For example, they offer bird’s eye views of landscapes with extruded building footprints, but one cannot ‘get o...

An architectural heritage object carries heterogeneous and multi-layered information beyond physical characteristics. It requires an integrated representation of various types of information for understanding and management prior to the decision-making process of conservation. This requirement is a twofold manner consisting of representation and ma...

The paper reviews the state-of-the-art in 3D city models and building block generation, with a description of the most common solutions and approaches. Then the digital reconstruction and comparison of LoD1 and LoD2 building models obtained with commercial packages and using different input data are presented. As input data, a DSM at 1m resolution...

The Pleiades mission is part of the French-Italian ORFEO system (Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation) and has the aim to provide very-high resolution optical imagery from space for civilian and military needs. Within the Pleiades evaluation program, the 3DOM Unit at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento (Italy) received a triplet by Plei...

The aim of this study is estimating solar radiation on building roofs in complex mountain landscape areas. A multi-scale solar radiation estimation methodology is proposed that combines 3D data ranging from regional scale to the architectural one. Both the terrain and the nearby building shadowing effects are considered. The approach is modular and...

This paper presents our research to develop a gesture-based 3D GIS system to engage the public in cultural heritage. It compares two types of interaction—device-based vs. natural interaction— and summarizes the beta-testing results of a 3D GIS tool for archaeology, called QueryArch3D, in which participants used device-based interaction (i.e. mouse...

Continuous technological advances in surveying, computing and digital-content delivery are strongly contributing to a change in the way Cultural Heritage is "perceived": new tools and methodologies for documentation, reconstruction and research are being created to assist not only scholars, but also to reach more potential users (e.g. students and...

This paper explores the potential of using Microsoft’s Kinect to create a low-cost and portable system to virtually navigate, through a prototype 3D GIS, the digitally reconstructed ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan in Honduras. The 3D GIS, named QueryArch3D, was developed as part of the MayaArch3D project (http://mayaarch3d...

This paper explores the potential of using Microsoft's Kinect to create a low-cost and portable system to virtually navigate, through a prototype 3D GIS, the digitally reconstructed ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan in Honduras. The 3D GIS, named QueryArch3D, was developed as part of the MayaArch3D project (http://mayaarch3d...

Today the use of spaceborne Very High Spatial Resolution (VHSR) optical sensors for automatic 3D information extraction is increasing in the scientific and civil communities. The 3D Optical Metrology (3DOM) Unit of the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) in Trento (Italy) has collected stereo VHSR satellite imagery, as well as aerial and terrestrial dat...

The actual high resolution optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite sensors offer interesting potentialities for Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generation. Both optical and SAR imagery are characterized by proper deformations and noise due to the different acquisition geometries and processes, which have to be duly taken into account dur...

The aim of this study is the estimation of solar irradiance on building roofs in complex Alpine landscapes. Very high resolution geometric models of the building roofs are generated by means of advanced automated image matching methods. Models are combined with raster and vector data sources to estimate the incoming solar radiation hitting the roof...

As a result of new sensors and methodologies that allow for faster and more accurate data acquisition, the production of highly detailed 3D models is becoming part of the standard workflow in many disciplines – architecture, cultural heritage, urban planning, and others. At the same time, new related problems have emerged concerning the management...

Constant improvements in the field of surveying, computing and distribution of digital-content are reshaping the way Cultural Heritage can be digitised and virtually accessed, even remotely via web. A traditional 2D approach for data access, exploration, retrieval and exploration may generally suffice, however more complex analyses concerning spati...

eomatics and Geoinformatics deal with spatial and geographic information, 3D surveying and modeling as well as information science infrastructures. Geomatics and Geoinformatics are thus involved in cartography, mapping, photogrammetry, remote sensing, laser scanning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS),...

The paper deals with the behaviour of slopes subjected to increasing loads applied to the soil surface just behind the crest. To this end a new fully-automatic small scale 1 g physical model has been recently built to reproduce a plain-strain state within a granular soil slope. Two relatively new measurement technologies, namely particle image velo...

Thanks to quickly spreading technologies like laser scanning, which are becoming a quite common means of data acquisition for architectural objects or cultural heritage sites (but not only!), integration between datasets of different origin and resolution is still an open problem. This paper describes an approach whose goal is to define a surface w...

This paper presents a new deterministic approach for data integration between two given input datasets - a low resolution DTM and a high resolution model -, both georeferenced, aligned, and representing (up to a certain extent) the same portion of the Earth's surface. Integration is carried out by means of a transition surface, which uses some "ext...

Use of high resolution sensors like laser scanners is becoming more and more common for surveying tasks. Nearly every single application field is in fact gaining benefits from these booming methodologies. Production of high detailed models is therefore becoming part of the standard workflow in many disciplines (architecture, cultural heritage, urba...