A scalable methodology for assessing the impacts of urban shade on the summer electricity use of residential homes

Our cities are experiencing unprecedented growth while net global temperatures continue to trend warmer making sustainable urban development and energy conservation pressing public issues. This research explores how urban landscaping -- in particular trees and buildings -- affect summer electricity use in residential homes. I studied the interactions of urban shade and temperature to explore how vegetation distribution and intensity could play a meaningful role in heat mitigation in urban environments. Only a few studies have reconciled modeled electricity savings from tree shade with actual electricity consumption data. This research proposes a methodology for modeling the isolated effects of urban shade (tree shade vs building shade) on buildings' summertime electricity consumption from micro to mesoscales, empirically validating the modeled shade with actual electricity billing data, and comparing the electric energetic impact of tree shade effects with building shade effects. This proposed methodology seeks to resolve three primary research questions: 1) What are the modeled quantities of urban shade associated with the area of interest (AOI)? 2) To what extent do the effects of shading from trees and buildings mitigate summertime heat in the AOI? 2) To what extent do the shade effects from trees and buildings reduce summertime electricity consumption in the AOI?...