Massimo Palme- Materials Engineer; PhD in Architecture, Energy and Environment; Master GIS; Professional Certificate in Data Science
- Professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
Massimo Palme
- Materials Engineer; PhD in Architecture, Energy and Environment; Master GIS; Professional Certificate in Data Science
- Professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
I am working on the edge of urban climatology and building performance evaluation.
About
147
Publications
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Introduction
I hold a degree in Materials Engineering and a PhD in Architecture, Energy and Environment. Visiting researcher in Italy (La Sapienza University 2015-2022, Catania University 2019), Japan (Kobe University - JSPS Fellow 2020) and Ecuador (National Institute of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 2015 and 2016), I am currently president of IBPSA-Chile and vice-president of IALE-Chile. I work also as energy consultant for the Housing Ministry (SERVIU-MINVU).
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2020 - February 2020
Position
- Fellow
Description
- I was recipient of an invitational fellowship to conduct research at the Kobe University
May 2019 - present
IALE Chile
Position
- Secretary
September 2018 - November 2018
Education
April 2020 - June 2021
edX
Field of study
- Data Science
February 2008 - July 2008
September 2004 - March 2010
Publications
Publications (147)
Cities are dissipative structures. As such, cities generate heat, a phenomenon known as urban heat island (UHI). Even though the UHI is one of the most relevant effects of urbanization on urban climate, up-to-date methodologies to include it in the estimation of buildings’ energy consumption are still scarce. During the last 30 years, different met...
The energy performance of urban buildings is affected by multiple climate phenomena such as heat island intensity, wind flow, solar obstructions and infrared radiation exchange in urban canyons, but a modelling procedure to account for all of them in building performance simulation is still missing. This paper contributes to fill this gap by descri...
Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a phenomenon that is affecting cities across the world. In tropical climates, an increased UHI intensity can cause a significant rise in heat stress probability, both indoors and outdoors. A general increase in the air-conditioning energy consumption of buildings should also be expected as a consequence. This paper evalua...
Over the past decades, intense urbanization processes have produced built environments with a low energy efficiency and a severe lack of green spaces, which represent the main providers of ecosystem services in cities and play a relevant role in regulating the local microclimate. Among the different natural processes involved in climate regulation,...
This book discusses urban microclimate and heat-related risks in urban areas, brought on by the combination of global climate change effects and local modification of climate determined by extensive urbanization such as the ‘Urban heat island’ phenomenon. This matter is relevant to almost all urbanized areas in the world, where the increase of urba...
The implementation of green roofs as a nature-based climate change mitigation strategy against is being urgently applied in many cities, as in addition to providing important and numerous benefits to the quality of public space, it offers reductions in the energy consumption of buildings, especially on hot or summer days. Valparaíso is a city in ce...
Urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon identified since the beginning
of the XIX Century as characteristic of cities across the world. In recent
years, because of the increase in the atmosphere temperature, Urban Heat
Island intensity has been considered as an urgent issue to be solved in many
countries. Despite of the international scientific lit...
In the current context of global change, and particularly climate, one of the most predominant issues is the mitigation of climate change and its effects, to achieve the sustainable development goals at the global level, it is necessary to explore new fields for the implementation of interventions. There is immense potential for the reduction of CO...
This article reviews the slipstraw ceiling technology known in the Aymara language as "caruna.” The study was made in Aymara homes at more than 4,000 meters above sea level in the town of Tacora, in the region of Arica and Parinacota, Chile, as part of project 49204, financed by the National Cultural Heritage Service. It aims to recover this vernac...
Abstract:
The clay and lightened straw ceiling is a construction practice that Andean communities have traditionally used in their homes. Depending on its geographical location, it is called by different names such as “caruna, takta, t’ajta, tacta, and in the Chipaya language “wara”, p’ira, t’illi” and uses the earth and straw of its highland envir...
Cities are the vortex of matter and energy transformations that sustain the human condition in the twenty-first century. Many studies have shown that human societies are transforming urban phenomena at an impressive rate, even questioning the use of the rural-urban opposition nowadays [1]. Many architects and planners are referring to the "urban ag...
One of the effects of human activity on planet performance is the urban climate. Its characteristics have been studied during the last decades and both morphological and buildings materials (buildings and streets), activity and transit have been declared, all associated with anthropic factors. Various models have been developed to adequately define...
This open access book addresses the pressing need for sustainability in urban development and the use of technology, with cities to serve as the main stage for strategies that seek to meet the targets and the cross-sector priorities indicated in the EU’s Next Generation program, all in pursuit of a solid recovery on the part of the European economy...
Technological imagination has been, until now, a stronger driver of development and has permitted to scale economy and even to obtain increasing returns of investments. However, times are a changing. Humanity faces now societal and environmental changes that are pushing the planet Earth toward a danger zone, over-passing recommended limits for seve...
Technological imagination and innovation processes have always been at the basis of economic growth and the expansion of human domination over other species. Nevertheless, something seems to have got stuck. Can the leaps in technological development that make it possible to "reset" the clock to start growing again in a sustained form really be infi...
Construction sector has high impacts on the environment, in terms of energy consumption, water use, and emissions to the atmosphere of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Life-Cycle Analysis is an international recognized method to assess the environmental impact of complex objects, such as buildings. In this work, we use information from national and...
Climate change impact on cities and urban warming due to anthropogenic effects are urgent problems to be solved. Among the most beneficious strategies to reduce those impacts we can account the development of green infrastructures in cities, a kind of intervention that assure both mitigation of global warming by reducing greenhouse gases emissions,...
Rapid urbanisation, economic growth, and urban spatial development in developing countries, such as Iran, have resulted in tremendous loss of green cover and associated ecological problems. Any effort to achieve sustainable urban development should be supported by recognising and evaluating the ecological health of vegetation cover. This study inve...
Debido al desarrollo asociado a la industrialización y al aumento rápido de la urbanización, diversas ciudades han experimentado efectos de Isla de Calor Urbano (ICU).A partir de esto, diversos estudios han demostrado la existencia de factores urbanos que pueden mitigar el efecto ICU, tales como la altura de edificio, la presencia de áreas verdes,...
Este trabajo presenta un análisis de los patrones de los países de América del Sur en cuanto a su sostenibilidad. El enfoque utilizado plantea una evaluación de la eficiencia productiva y la sostenibilidad del desarrollo nacional, considerando el estrés sobre los recursos naturales y el paisaje a través de la emergía. Los datos preliminares son ext...
Tropical environments cover a large part of the Earth: almost all the portion of the planetary surface included between latitudes 23.43 North (Tropic of Cancer) and 23.43 South (Tropic of Capricorn) [1]. Tropical climates can be divided in three sub-climates: rainforest, monsoon and savannah [2]. All these climates imply high humidity values and av...
La lotta ai cambiamenti climatici e il corretto uso del suolo rappresentano due sfide a scala globale. L'urbanizzazione e la progressiva riduzione di aree verdi e di superfici per-meabili nei contesti insediativi stanno amplificando alcuni fenomeni come l'aumento del-la frequenza e dell'intensità delle ondate di calore e l'innalzamento della temper...
Latin American countries experiment rates of urban growth among the highest of the planet, and in some cases the megacities' population can reach the 30% of the whole country's population. However, up to the date, the research on Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon has not been fully developed in this Region. Despite pioneer works on urban climatolo...
Greening the city is recognised as a main strategy to improve cities liveability, outdoor environment and buildings' energy efficiency in summer. This work proposes a machine learning approach to predict, based on certain number of previously run simulations, the contribution of trees' shadows to cooling needs reduction in Mediterranean climates. T...
While performing building energy simulations, weather data are among the most important pieces of information needed by models and tools. In urban conditions, the typical rural weather files should be modified to take into account the microclimatic effects in urban areas. This chapter presents an overview of the most relevant effects to be consider...
Heat waves could cause severe damages on population health in cities. Exposition to heat in some cases can lead to death, as experimented in many European countries during the heat waves of 2003, that reported a total of about 70,000 deaths. Heat stress is defined as the ratio of evaporation needed to maintain the thermal balance of the human body...
The increasing urbanisation trend of the last 50 years has drastically changed the landscape worldwide. The majority of world population is now living in cities and urban population growth is still accelerating, especially in developing countries. This chapter introduces the key concepts discussed in this book—i.e. urban heat island, urban climate...
Urban metabolism is a new field of study, which converges topics from many disciplines, like architecture and planning, urban climatology, urban physics, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology and engineering. In this chapter the city is studied as a thermodynamic system, focusing on the properties of adaptive, complex open systems to de...
![Figure 6. Horizontal and vertical shadings (adapted from [31]). 3.4.4....](profile/Ruben-Hidalgo-Leon/publication/348339976/figure/fig4/AS:977842565287945@1610147243807/Horizontal-and-vertical-shadings-adapted-from-31-344-High-Performance-Windows_Q320.jpg)
This paper compares the potential for building energy saving of various passive and active strategies and on-site power generation through a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system (SPVS). The case study is a student welfare unit from a university campus located in the tropical climate (Aw) of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The proposed approach aims to iden...
Low- and middle-income countries are more exposed to climate change-related impacts than other countries. In Chile, the northern Atacama Desert is sensitive to changes induced by global warming, especially regarding precipitations. The very low level of annual precipitation experimented by this region makes that cities placed there are totally unpr...
Urban heat island is a phenomenon affecting cities across the world. While in cold climates it could be regarded as an even beneficious process, in temperate climates and especially in the inter-tropical latitude range, the increase in urban temperature can generate risks for health, outdoor and indoor discomfort, and an increase in buildings energ...
Urban Heat Island (UHI) research has been increasingly impacting science during the last decades. As most of humanity is living in cities, urban climatology is a consolidating field that attract more and more interest with time. Higher temperature in cities are involved in many processes and have impacts on energy needs, thermal comfort, public hea...
The urban heat island (UHI) effect on the city and urban climate are related whit urban form and urban materials: it's an evidence of human influence in climate change. Into the cities, the air temperature increases in downtown and go to outskirts decreases. Valparaíso, Chile, is located in a Mediterranean climate in the southern hemisphere (-33°03...
The concept of urban metabolism was introduced by Wolman in 1965 [...]
Green infrastructure is a very important aspect to be considered in designing and preparing cities to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts on the built environment. Green based solutions have a strong impact on many aspects, such as controlling storm-water, reducing urban heat island effect, stabilizing soils, facing earthquakes, etcetera. In...
Institutional buildings are very important considering the impact on energy consumption of a city. Due to the conditions of operation, the size and the density of occupants, institutional buildings represent a challenge to save energy in both cold and hot seasons. Urban climate influences the building performance, typically reducing thermal demand...
The Urbanocene, a proposed new geological epoch characterized by the urban living condition, is pressing the humanity to respond shortly to important challenges. Cities are at the same time the places where we live in and the big dissipators of the final energy to the environment. The simultaneous rules of heat dissipator and place to live are quit...
Proceedings of the IBPSA LATAM Conference, Valparaíso 27-28 Septiembre 2018
This research describes a methodology to include the urban environment in the building performance simulation. By using the Urban Weather Generator urban weather data are obtained, than a model to consider shadows and infra-red environment is designed and building performance simulation is conducted in TRNSYSv. 17. Results show that building perfor...
Sustainable urbanization remains one of the central challenges for South America. Cities of this region are expanding very fast and this impressive urban growth has a significant impact on the environment, on energy consumption, and on public health. This chapter explores the urban heat island (UHI) effect on the climate of Guayaquil, Lima, Antofag...
Landsat 8 satellite images will be collected to determine how urban heat islands have changed in Antofagasta during the period between June 2013 and March 2018. In this way its possible to determine whether or not there has been an increase in Surface temperaturas in the city and in different sectors that can mean heat sources within the city. The...
This paper presents a new methodology to carry out building performance simulation at the district scale integrating the building thermal model TRNSYS with the climate model ‘Urban Weather Generator’ (UWG).
The integrated methodology is designed to include the microclimatic modifications induced by urban environments on buildings’ cooling load calc...
This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities. Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...
This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities. Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...
A methodology is presented to assess local criticalities and resilience to climate changes (CC) and UHI (Urban Heat Island). This analysis will consider the expected impacts on the local energy demand of the built environment due to climate-related variations. Climate-related indicators are proposed to assess a vulnerability index to CC and UHI in...
This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities.
Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...
Book of Abstract of the Meeting "Sustainability and Urban Metabolism in South America", Antofagasta, 11-12 July 2018
The impact of the increasing technomass (TM) on cooling demand in buildings is explored for cities in South America. The entangled double nature of the building–environment interrelation in an urban context is analyzed. The research question is whether an increase in the building density produces a superlinear increase of energy consumption at the...
http://www.connettere.org/la-citta-emergente-complessita-organizzazione-e-crescita-energetica-nel-metabolismo-urbano/
Las ciudades son estructuras disipativas, según definición dada por el premio Nobel Ilya Prigogine
ya en 1977. En otras palabras, son sistemas físico-biológicos que se mantienen operando lejos del
equilibrio termodinámico gracias a la continua disipación de calor, cosa que permite la generación
de complejidad y organización como fenómenos emergente...
The urban heat island phenomenon shows that the city changes the climate of the planet and affects it negatively by favouring the global warming. Urban morphology and city metabolism defines this behaviour. The city of Valparaíso, Chile, located in coastal Mediterranean climate in southern hemisphere is a city with around 295,000 inhabitants. In th...
Although Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a fundamental effect modifying the urban climate, being widely studied, the relative weight of the parameters involved in its generation is still not clear. This paper investigates the hierarchy of importance of eight parameters responsible for UHI intensity in the Mediterranean context. Sensitivity analyses have...
Urban heat island effect often produces an increase of overheating sensation inside of buildings. To evacuate this heat, the current use of air conditioning increases the energy consumption of buildings. As a good alternative, natural ventilation is one of the best strategies to obtain indoor comfort conditions, even in summer season, if buildings...
The urban heat island (UHI) effect is constantly increasing the energy consumption of buildings, especially in summer periods. The energy gap between the estimated energy performance - often simulated without considering UHI - and the real operational consumption is especially relevant for institutional buildings, where the cooling needs are in gen...
The urban heat island (UHI) effect is constantly increasing the energy consumption of buildings, especially in summer periods. The energy gap between the estimated energy performance - often simulated without considering UHI - and the real operational consumption is especially relevant for institutional buildings, where the cooling needs are in gen...
The aim of this research is to simulate the performance of a solar chimney located in different macro-zones in Ecuador. The proposed solar chimney model was simulated using a python script in order to predict the temperature distribution and the mass flow over time. The results obtained were firstly compared with experimental data for dry-warm clim...
This data article presents files supporting calculation for Urban Heat Island (UHI) inclusion in Building Performance Simulation (BPS). Methodology is used in the research article “From urban climate to energy consumption. Enhancing building performance simulation by including the urban heat island effect” (M. Palme, L. Inostroza, G. Villacreses, A...
The aim of this research is to simulate the performance of a solar chimney located in different macro-zones in Ecuador. The proposed solar chimney model was simulated using a python script in order to predict the temperature distribution and the mass flow over time. The results obtained were firstly compared with experimental data for dry-warm clim...
Global warming affects the built environment by changing the environmental conditions under which buildings operate. This change probably means a shift in thermal demand, from a predominant demand for heating to a higher demand for cooling in many climates. For instance, in cold climates global warming seems to be a self-decreasing phenomenon becau...
Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) is one of the most evident anthropogenic interventions on climate. During the last 20 years, a lot of research on monitoring and simulation of UHI was done by different institution across the world. However, there are some aspects not very clarified, for example, the decoupling and quantification of the different fact...
Este trabajo presenta una propuesta de evaluación de la demanda de refrigeración y de la capacidad de refrigeración pasiva por ventilación natural en viviendas sociales. La propuesta se fundamenta en la EN ISO 13790:2008 que utiliza una metodología casi estacionaria de cálculo. Se evalúa una vivienda con ventanas de doble batiente en las dos fachad...
Ecuador is a small country with high-frequency climatic variability. The principal macroclimatic regions are the Amazon rainforest, with a hot and humid climate; the tropical coast, also with a hot and humid climate; and the highlands, with a tropical mountain climate. The government is working on policies regarding the energy efficiency of all kin...
Urban form transforms territory and its climatic behavior. The morphology of a city varies from its centers to its periphery, as do population density, the temporal use of buildings, the presence or absence of vegetation and transport density. These variables condition the thermal behavior of public spaces. Sky View Factor (SVF) is defined by takin...
Presented at the Habitat 3 Conference in Quito, Ecuador
Climate change will worsen the high levels of urban vulnerability in Latin American cities due to specific environmental stressors. Some impacts of climate change, such as high temperatures in urban environments have not yet been addressed through adaptation strategies, which are based on poorly supported data. These impacts remain outside the scop...
XLS file containing the PCA calculations for sensitivity.
(XLS)
XLS file containing the PCA calculations for adaptive capacity.
(XLS)
XLS file containing the sensitivity analysis for adaptive capacity and HVI.
(XLS)
Este taller, denominado Taller 89, se planteó desde el principio como un ejercicio com- pleto que capacitara al alumno en la prác ca del diseño urbano y también en la pro- yectación de estrategias de e ciencia energé ca en la edi cación, labor que cons tuyó un importante desa o para nuestro equipo porque implicaba trabajar en varias escalas bien di...
This study aims to analyse the thermal performance of the model for social housing developed by the
Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MIDUVI) of Ecuador, which is given to the beneficiaries of the housing allowance. MIDUVI has used for many years a single model for its social housing projects along the country, consisting of houses built o...
Under climate change conditions, it is expected that the cooling demand of buildings will increase drastically in many regions of the world. However, most of the mitigation policies recently developed (or under development) in South-America only considers heating demand reduction as a strategy to improve the building sector efficiency. This work us...
This study aims to determine the optimal approach for evaluating thermal comfort in an office that uses natural ventilation as the main conditioning strategy; the office is located in Quito-Ecuador. The performance of the adaptive model included in CEN Standard EN15251 and the traditional PMV model are compared with reports of thermal environment s...
Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) is one of the most evident anthropogenic interventions on climate. During the last 20 years, a lot of research on monitoring and simulation of UHI was done by different institution across the world. However, there are some aspects not very clarified, for example, the decoupling and quantification of the different fact...
Steady-state evaluations are commonly used in
energy labelling for residential buildings in many
countries, considering that simplified methods are
sufficiently accurate to reach mandatory levels of
energy demand or emissions of greenhouse gases.
However, in some climates (especially the arid and
the continental climates) steady-state evaluations a...
La Arquitectura histórica de los templos cristianos en la Región de Antofagasta, Chile, posee una variedad de manifestaciones de técnicas y tradiciones constructivas que son muestra de diferentes influencias de la trama transcultural que se han hecho presente en el vasto territorio de la Región de Atacama La Grande, esta variedad patrimonial queda...
Research summary Humanity is facing important challenges in the next years. The United Nations set of Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2014), to be adopted in September 2015, underline that climate (goal 13: take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts) and urban issues (goal 11: make cities and human settlements inclus...
Climate change could affect enormously our lifestyle in the coming years. The latest IPCC report underlines that, in Chile, the temperature increase could be up to 6 degrees in 2100, especially in the northern part of the country. This paper explores the relationship between the urban disposition of buildings and the energy consumption changes that...
Questions
Questions (8)
Dear colleagues, this opportunity relates to a research appointment for 3 years with the possibility of stable position after the first year. Candidates must be Chilean or permanently resident in Chile, and should own a PhD obtained in the last five years and a Degree in Architecture. Research fields to develop with us could be (not limited to): sustainable urban development, technology of the architecture, energy efficiency, building simulation, comfort, and other topics related to sustainability in the built environment. Please contact me if interested in the next two weeks.
Open call available: http://www.conicyt.cl/pai/2016/02/01/concurso-atraccion-de-capital-humano-avanzado-del-extranjero-modalidad-estadias-cortas-mec-convocatoria-2016/
The candidate should have a PhD degree obtained before 30/6/2011 and a strong scientific curriculum. Contact me if you are interested.
Massimo
Open call available: http://www.conicyt.cl/pai/2016/02/01/concurso-atraccion-de-capital-humano-avanzado-del-extranjero-modalidad-estadias-cortas-mec-convocatoria-2016/
The candidate should have a PhD degree obtained before 30/6/2011 and a strong scientific curriculum. Contact me if you are interested.
Massimo
Which are the basis of synesthesia? It is only a neural effect that a small percentage of the humanity suffers or we could define a psychological (and cultural) synesthesia (e.g. the color - thermal - acoustic sensations association)? In this case, how it would differ from other cognitive (and conceptual) associations like love - heart or red - passion?
Researching on this issue, i find at least three interesting points of view: social inclusion and equity, energy and resources availability, regulation and planning to reach bearable developement.
Normally an academic dedicates do some hours per week to research, some to teach and some to administration of the Department or Faculty. Some hours are also dedicated to external work, as institutional collaborations. What should be a correct percentage of dedication? For example, in my department, I'm doing 41% of administration, 27% of teaching activities, 27% of research and 5% of external activities. The average values of the School of Architecture UCN are: 55% teaching activities, 21% research, 19% administration and 5% external activities. It seems to me that it will be difficult to do quality research in these conditions. What do you think respect to your percentage?
