Pilot Wind as an Opportunity!

Wind plays a crucial role in the urban climate. However, current practice in the Netherlands mainly focuses on conducting local wind studies for new high-rise developments to mitigate wind nuisance and danger. Little to no attention is given to how wind moves through the city on a larger scale or how it could be harnessed in a positive way, such as for natural ventilation in urban areas.

In the pilot Wind as an Opportunity!, the city of Rotterdam collaborated with wind engineering company Actiflow to conduct a CFD study for a large part of the city (with a 5 km diameter), including various types of urban fabric. The results went beyond the standard wind comfort and wind safety analyses. Through an iterative process of brainstorming sessions with a multidisciplinary group of designers and policymakers from the municipality, the results were examined, and new ideas were generated on how this data could influence future strategies on a range of urban climate issues within the municipality. Among other outcomes, maps were created depicting urban ventilation (related to heat stress and air quality), storm events, and wind energy potential on rooftops. These maps can even be used to predict areas of danger in the city during future storms. The project encountered multiple technical challenges, such as the computational demands of the simulations, data processing, and integrating the CFD results with local statistical wind data. As such, the project has had both a social and technical impact.