Artificial Intelligence in Performance-Driven Design

12Digital Twin for Citywide Energy Modeling and Management

Narjes Abbasabadi¹ and Mehdi Ashayeri²

¹ Department of Architecture, School of Architecture, College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

² School of Architecture, College of Arts and Media, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA

Introduction

The landscape of modern society is being reshaped by the growing phenomenon of urbanization. Currently over 50% of the global population is living in urban areas, and it is projected to increase to 70% by 2050 (“World Population Prospects ‐ Population Division ‐ United Nations” n.d.). However, this urban growth comes at a significant environmental cost, as cities are responsible for about 75% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated from global energy consumption (World Resources Institute (WRI) n.d.). Notably, buildings alone account for about 37% of the world's energy consumption and the associated emissions (International Energy Agency 2022). These are linked to the pressing issue of climate change. Despite the need to combat climate change, global energy consumption and its associated CO₂ emissions continue to rise (González‐Torres et al. 2022). The collective impact of urbanization and the energy consumption of buildings necessitate prompt climate action (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2022). In this context, worldwide many cities have started setting goals to achieve net‐zero carbon emissions by 2050, ...