The choice of climatic information for urban building analysis and design can be problematic. The climates of adjacent urban, suburban, and rural areas are known to differ. For example, the urban heat island is a well-known effect. Thus, climatic information collected from rural or suburban weather stations may not be appropriate for building design within the urban centre. In response to this problem, ASHRAE Technical Committee 4.2, Weather Information, is sponsoring a two-phase project (ASHRAE Research Project 606) to develop improved methods for estimating urban climatic variables of significance to building HVAC system design. Summarises the results of Phase 1 of this project, which includes a review of urban climate literature, identification of key urban climate parameters, identification of existing algorithms for climatic variation, identification of three urban areas for further study, and selection of a basic urban simulation model.

KEYWORDS: climate, urban areas, calculating, building services, research, reviews, algorithms, models.