Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA): assess the BIA potentials on your building envelopes!

Advanced AnalysisBuilding-Integrated Agriculture (BIA)
Written By Zhongming Shi

I am pleased to introduce a recent plug-in developed for the City Energy Analyst, named building-integrated agriculture (BIA) tool. It calculates crop yields, environmental impacts including GHG emissions, energy and water use, and costs including capital and operational expenditures for the selected crop type on the selected building surfaces.

In this blog, I am going to use four sections to introduce the tool’s installation, input preparation, and how to execute the BIA assessment and understand the results.

Before I proceed, I would like to acknowledge that the making of this plug-in is for the Building-Integrated Agriculture Project funded by the National Research Foundation Singapore. We appreciate the sponsorship. Meanwhile, I would like to thank my research partners from the National University of Singapore and its Tropical Technology Laboratory for supporting the BIA tool with empirical urban farming experiment data.

Installation

Before all, please make sure you have successfully installed the City Energy Analyst (CEA). Please follow the next steps to install the BIA tool as an extension to CEA. I am a Mac user and I am introducing the process for Mac system. The processes should be similar for Windows.

  • Open Terminal (For Windows, please open CEA console)

  • Type, then press return: cd documents/github

  • Type, then press return: git clone https://github.com/shizhongming/cea-plugin-bia.git

  • Type, then press return: cd cityenergyanalyst

  • Type, then press return: conda activate cea

  • Type, then press return: pip install -e /Users/your_name/Documents/GitHub/cea-plugin-bia

  • Type, then press return: cea-config write --general:plugins bia.bia_assessment.BiaAssessmentPlugin

At this point, if no error is reported, then, you have successfully installed the BIA tool. You should be able to see the BIA tab in the CEA Dashboard: Tools > Urban Agriculture > BIA Assessment.

Input preparation

Before using the BIA tool, please make sure you have executed the following CEA commands in the CEA Dashboard.

  • Tools > Data Management > Archetypes Mapper

  • Tools > Data Management > Weather Helper

  • Tools > Data Management > Surroundings Helper

  • Tools > Data Management > Terrain Helper

  • Tools > Demand Forecasting > Building Solar Radiation

Alternatively, you may also activate these CEA commands in Terminal (or CEA Console). I am not going to introduce these CEA Command Lines as they are out of the scope of this blog.

Executing the BIA assessment

Similar to the CEA commands above, you can execute the BIA assessment in two ways using CEA Dashboard or CEA command lines.

When using CEA Dashboard (see the screenshot below):

  • Tab multiprocessing: on or off as you need

  • Select your type of crops using the drop-down list (more crop types soon to be included)

  • Tab crop-on-roof: on if you would like to grow vegetables on building roofs

  • Tab crop-on-window: on if you would like to grow vegetables on windows (equivalent to indoor planting)

  • Tab crop-on-wall-under-window: on if you would like to grow vegetables using the wall space below windows.

  • Tab crop-on-wall-between-window: on if you would like to grow vegetables using the wall space horizontally between windows.

  • Click Run Script

Now, please wait for a couple of minutes for the tool to complete the BIA assessment.

Or, when using CEA Command Lines:

  • Define all agriculture parameters in the file and save: /Users/your_name/cea.config

  • Open Mac Terminal :

    Under documents/github/cityenergyanalyst : conda activate cea (For Windows, please open CEA console)

  • Type, then press return: cea bia-assessment

Now, please wait for the results. The computation time depends on the size of your scenario.

Understanding the results

After executing the BIA assessment, now under > your_project > your_scenario > outputs > data > potentials > agriculture, you should see the output files that the BIA tool has created. There are three categories of these .csv files.

The first category’s file name looks like this: building_name_DLI_daily.csv. Such files mainly contain the Daily light integral (DLI) in mol/m2/day for each CEA building envelope surface for 365 days of a year. These surfaces include roofs, windows, walls below windows and walls between windows horizontally.

The second category’s file name looks like this: building_name_BIA_metrics_crop_type.csv under the surface Folder. Such files contain the BIA metrics that the BIA tool has calculated. They are:

+ crop yield-related metrics

  • yield_kg_per_year :

    [kg/yr] crop yield of the selected crop type over a year

  • yield_kg_per_sqm_per_year_a :

    [kg/m2/yr] crop yield of the selected crop type per square metre building envelope surface area (allowed by users) over a year

  • yield_kg_per_sqm_per_year_i :

    [kg/m2/yr] crop yield of the selected crop type per square metre building envelope surface area (installed with BIA) over a year

+ green house gas emission-related environmental metrics

  • ghg_kg_co2_mys :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are produced in Malaysia and transported to Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_idn :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are produced in Indonesia and transported to Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_sgp_soil :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_sgp_soil_gh :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_sgp_hydro :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_sgp_hydro_gh :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • ghg_kg_co2_bia :

    [kg CO2-eq] green house gas emissions if such amount of yields are BIA-cultivated in Singapore

+ energy use-related environmental metrics

  • energy_kWh_mys :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are produced in Malaysia and transported to Singapore

  • energy_kWh_idn :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are produced in Indonesia and transported to Singapore

  • energy_kWh_sgp_soil :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • energy_kWh_sgp_soil_gh :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • energy_kWh_sgp_hydro :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • energy_kWh_sgp_hydro_gh :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • energy_kWh_bia :

    [kWh] energy use if such amount of yields are BIA-cultivated in Singapore

+ water use-related environmental metrics

  • water_l_mys :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are produced in Malaysia and transported to Singapore

  • water_l_idn :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are produced in Indonesia and transported to Singapore

  • water_l_sgp_soil :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • water_l_sgp_soil_gh :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are greenhouse soil-cultivated in Singapore

  • water_l_sgp_hydro :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are non-greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • water_l_sgp_hydro_gh :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are greenhouse hydroponics in Singapore

  • water_l_bia :

    [litre] water use if such amount of yields are BIA-cultivated in Singapore

+ cost-related metrics

  • capex_infrastructure_USD :

    [USD] BIA-capital investment in purchasing and installing the infrastructure

  • capex_soil_USD :

    [USD] BIA-capital investment in purchasing the soil

  • capex_all_USD :

    [USD] BIA-total capital investment

  • capex_all_annualised_USD :

    [USD/yr] BIA-annualised capital investment

  • opex_seed_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-annual operational expenditure on purchasing the seeds

  • opex_pesticide_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-annual operational expenditure on purchasing the pesticide

  • opex_fertilizer_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-annual operational expenditure on purchasing the fertiliser

  • opex_water_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-annual operational expenditure on purchasing the water

  • opex_sell_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-less annual operational expenditure if such amount of yields are purchased using the Singapore market price

  • opex_all_USD_per_year :

    [USD/yr] BIA-total annual operational expenditure

The third category contains one file and is named: BIA_assessment_total_crop_type.csv. It presents the aggregated results by year for each building in the simulated scenario.

Please note: As of today, the BIA tool works the best for Singapore or its adjacent regions as the planting data have been acquired from the Tropical Technologies Laboratory affiliated to the National University of Singapore in Clementi, Singapore.

Cite the BIA tool

Please check this blog post for the up-to-date information when citing the BIA tool.

Next

In the upcoming blog, I am going to introduce how you can customise and create your own crop type and add your own experiment data to the BIA Tool. Also, I may include some paragraphs about how our empirical experiments are conducted at the Tropical Technologies Laboratory.

Thanks and keep healthy!

Zhongming Shi
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