Dark cities or cities of light? – sunlight amenity preservation at whole-city scale using a spatio-temporal decision support approach

Abstract

Public open spaces are fundamentally important for the health and well-being of citizens in densely populated cities. If not carefully planned, high-density urban development can overshadow adjacent open spaces, resulting in poor quality, dark and oppressive winter conditions. Current planning control approaches for protecting light amenity in cities are often limited to simple overshadowing impact diagrams (e.g. shadows cast on the equinox at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.). In cities transitioning from low to higher density, comprising more complex urban forms and more extreme seasonal light amenity dynamics, these static approaches are insufficient. This paper outlines the development of a sp..