Abstract
Building professionals’ use of historical weather data in performance analysis and design is an insufficient response to the impacts of a changing climate. Existing standards, laws and conventions in the US (and elsewhere) reinforce the use of typical weather files derived from historical data. Although projected climate data are readily available from reliable sources, significant barriers prevent adoption. These include a lack of consensus on the methodology for creating climate data for buildings based on climate models; a lack of a publicly available platform for providing climate projections for use in a format suitable for building analysis; a lack of consensus on a standardized framework for communicating results of simulation with long-term climate data projections; andliability concerns with using projection data. A coordinated response to these challenges is necessary across building design disciplines to ensure widespread adoption. Professional institutions, codes and standards organizations, and national governments have a key role to ensure that buildings created today are fit for climatic conditions in 20, 50, and 100 years’ time.
Policy relevance
Codes and standards for buildings and infrastructure need rethinking to account for adaptation to climate change, including the protection of real estate investments. Concerted action from professional and standards-setting bodies is required to standardize and make available projected climate data that can be used for building design and analysis. The use of these data and resultant analyses must be standardized in an industry-wide, sanctioned framework to address concerns around liability, misuse and transparency.