Buildings

Tip

  1. Need help? Please let us know in the UMEP Community.

  2. Please report issues with the manual on GitHub Issues (or use Report Issue for This Page for page-specific feedback).

  3. Please cite SUEWS with proper information from our Zenodo page.

4.3.4. Buildings#

Properties for building surfaces including roofs and walls.

Building surfaces are complex urban elements that interact with radiation, store heat, and influence local wind patterns. They include both roof and wall components with distinct thermal and radiative properties.

Parameters:

sfr#

Surface fraction of grid area covered by this surface type

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.14285714285714285

emis#

Surface emissivity for longwave radiation

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.95

ohm_threshsw#

Summer/winter threshold based on temperature for OHM calculation

Unit:

degC

Example:

0.0

ohm_threshwd#

Soil moisture threshold determining whether wet/dry OHM coefficients are applied

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.0

ohm_coef#

The ohm_coef parameter group is defined by the Seasonal/Wetness OHM Coefficients structure.

soildepth#

Depth of soil layer for hydrological calculations

Unit:

mm

Default:

None (optional)

soilstorecap#

Maximum water storage capacity of soil

Unit:

mm

Default:

None (optional)

statelimit#

Minimum water storage capacity for state change

Unit:

mm

Example:

10.0

wetthresh#

Surface wetness threshold for OHM calculations

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.5

sathydraulicconduct#

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil

Unit:

mm s-1

Default:

None (optional)

waterdist#

The waterdist parameter group is defined by the Water Distribution structure.

storedrainprm#

Storage and drain parameters

The storedrainprm parameter group is defined by the Drainage Parameters structure.

snowpacklimit#

Limit of snow that can be held on surface

Unit:

mm

Example:

10.0

thermal_layers#

Thermal layers for the surface

The thermal_layers parameter group is defined by the Thermal Layers structure.

irrfrac#

Fraction of surface area that can be irrigated

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.0

ref#

The ref parameter group is defined by the Reference Info structure.

alb#

Surface albedo

Unit:

dimensionless

Example:

0.1

faibldg#

Frontal area index of buildings

Unit:

dimensionless

Default:

None (optional)

bldgh#

Building height

Unit:

m

Default:

None (optional)