Service-Reach and Cooling-Load Coupling for Civic Facility Siting in Semi-Arid BenGuerir, Morocco

Abstract

Siting civic facilities in semi-arid settings should take into account both the need to locate facilities within a certain range from the people in terms of access to their services and the fact that some buildings are more sensitive to temperature than others. This analysis of a 29.5 ha plot located in the Green City of BenGuerir in Morocco is based on the data such as program areas, G+ floor configurations, the distance up to which people are willing to travel for certain types of facilities, population density, lighting loads, equipment loads, ventilation and air changes per hour, cooling and heating setpoint temperatures, wall and roof surface heat transfer coefficients, window solar heat gain coefficient, and annual cooling and heating intensities. As the result of calculations, mixed-use facilities demonstrate the highest internal gain intensity (65.28 W m⁻²), followed by the gymnasium (55.05 W m⁻²), the police center (49.10 W m⁻²), the secondary school (45.52 W m⁻²), and the primary school (43.73 W m⁻²). At the same time, residential buildings and the polyvalent room show the lowest figures (18.98 W m⁻² and 19.15 W m⁻²). With regard to access requirements, primary schools and mixed-use facilities have the most important priority due to their preferred service distance being 750 m, while masjids and polyvalent rooms are second in order (1200 m). The annual cooling intensity is 51.13 kWh m⁻² year⁻¹, while the annual heating intensity is 25.18 kWh m⁻² year⁻¹. Thus, the coefficient equals 2.03. The obtained results suggest that high internal gain activities are to be avoided along.