Luc Adolphe

MUSE: An Open Urban Management Decision Support System

Abstract This paper describes a decision support tool for urban planners. Numerous research studies show that energy consumed and produced in cities can be related to its morphology. Yet, the urban energy paradox is defined as follows: on the one hand, the densification of cities reduces transportation and buildings consumptions. On the other hand, this densification has a negative impact on urban microclimate and renewable energies potential. The goal of this work is to develop a decision support system for urban planners faced with urban energy paradox. Our research is based on a previous work developed by Luc Adolphe et al. in the SAGACites project. This research led to the development of the geographic information system (GIS) platform called MORPHOLOGIC, which, among other things, evaluates the energy consumption of city blocks. Our goal is to add new features in MORPHOLOGIC: one of them calculates solar potential (photovoltaic and thermal), using a simplified model of shadows. The new version of MORPHOLOGIC called MUSE, based on the open source GIS called OrbisGis developed by the IRSTV institute, will allow urban planners to evaluate the best urban form to reduce GHG emissions.