Energy efficiency in office buildings has been the center of attention for many researches. This special attention is due to highly energy consumption in this building type. Refinement of facade and building’s envelop is a good approach to reduce buildings energy requirements. Double skin facade concepts are commonly used to achieve that object. Although the concept is not new, there is a growi...

Façade texturing is a key point for realistic rendering of virtual city models, since it suggests to the viewer a level of detail that is much higher than actually provided by the geometry. Façade textures are usually derived from terrestrial imagery acquired from a position on the ground. One problem frequently encountered is the disturbance of texture images by partial occlusion of the façade...

current standards for indoor comfort are based on studies of adults, but they also apply tochildren, even though children differ in terms of metabolic rates, clothing types, activity levels, and preferences in space arrangement. children are also more sensitive to a range of environmental factors, they are usually unable to interact with their environment, and they accept indoor conditions pass...

Urban search and rescue (USaR) teams require a fast and thorough building damage assessment, to focus their rescue efforts accordingly. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are able to capture relevant data in a short time frame and survey otherwise inaccessible areas after a disaster, and have thus been identified as useful when coupled with RGB cameras for façade damage detection. Existing literatu...

Besides response and recovery, prevention and preparedness are the two critical components of any contingency plan. The author discusses the various elements which must be present in the prevention and preparedness plan of countries in Asia. As the continent has such diverse peoples and veterinary infrastructures, the actual plan may vary from one country to another, but must incorporate those ...

A virtual 3-dimension city model is a sophisticated application of geoinformatic systems as it represents layouts, activities and functionalities of a real-world community. To enable human users to better visualize their living spaces, a virtual reality city model must be both immersive and accurately re-created. Visualization of city models in such environments is a combination of many challen...