Question about SOLWEIG inputs

[sstrumwasser]

I'm working on a large-scale application of the SOLWEIG model and am currently gathering input data. For the Outdoor Thermal Comfort: SOLWEIG tool itself, I'm a little confused about what the inputs should be. The tutorial docs say that the building and ground DSM should be "Given in meters above sea level" i.e. an unnormalized DSM. The UMEP manual, on the other hand, describes the input as "A DSM consisting of ground and building heights" which is a little vague as to whether it should be normalized or not. Also, the tutorial docs include a DEM as input, while the manual does not.

I assumed that the DEM was used to normalize the DSM, but that seems like unnecessary processing for an already computationally-intensive tool. Any clarification/explanation would be much appreciated - I want to make sure we're sure about the needs before we start preparing large amounts of data. Thank you!

[biglimp]

Thank you for noticing. We will update to make things clearer. This is how the geodata should be specified:

• DSM: Ground and building digital surface model (masl)
• CDSM (optional): Vegetation canopy surface model (magl). zero values where no tree is present.
• Land cover (optional): UMEP formatted ground cover without the two tree (deciduous and conifer) classes. what is on the ground surface should be included
• DEM (optional): Digital elevation model (masl). Only ground heights.

Note: The DEM is used, in-conjunction with the DSM to identify buildings. If you have a land cover grid, you can choose to identify building from that layer. Then no DEM is required.

Hope this clarifies things. Good look with your large-scale runs.

[sstrumwasser]

Thank you very much for your response, this is helpful. One other question: our LiDAR data has 3 categories of vegetation, 0-2m, 2-5m and >5m. Does it make sense to include all three in the CDSM, or would only the tallest two categories make sense?

[biglimp]

I would skip the lowest class