VIRVIL, a 3D Virtual Village to Assess the Impact of Low and Zero Carbon Technologies in the Built Environment

Abstract

Building on the extensive research in Virtual Reality (VR), we are proposing a new dynamic prototype for modelling and simulating carbon emissions in a virtual village called VIRVIL. VIRVIL is a simulated settlement for the assessment of the impact of low and zero carbon technologies and measures in the built environment. The prototype will focus on the impact on the community as a whole, as well as on individual buildings, and will bring together current state-of-the-art simulation capabilities to provide the most comprehensive and credible modelling software. Compared with conventional methods, our approach has the advantage of being capable of realistically visualising buildings in a geometrically interactive 3D environment, of analysing carbon emissions in real-time and dealing with very large-scale data for modelling and visualisation.