Geomaticians

Using Satellite Images, Scholars Develop A Model To Quantify Buildings’ Energy Use

In the face of climate change, reducing buildings’ energy consumption is critical, says Thomas Dougherty, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. By some estimates, buildings account for about 40% of the energy used in the United States. Reducing that usage in a significant way will require a comprehensive, holistic approach. For his PhD research, Dougherty decided to flip the building-by-building approach on its head. He would instead model buildings’ energy use from a distance – using computer vision analysis of a ubiquitous data type: satellite imagery. The resulting model, which he calls SCHMEAR, represents the first time researchers have modeled and quantified how much the context around a building contributes to its energy profile. SCHMEAR provides a new tool to help city planners understand the array of solutions they might pursue as they begin redesigning cities for a low-carbon world, says Rishee Jain, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, an affiliated faculty member of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and co-author of the SCHMEAR paper.