TOWARDS ENERGY ATLAS OF SOFIA CITY IN BULGARIA

Abstract. This paper proposes the first energy atlas of Sofia in Bulgaria. The research uses a geographical information system (GIS) approach and a statistical tolerance methodology to estimate building energy consumption. The buildings were classified into ten categories, and tolerance intervals were computed, which provide a distribution-free summary for the consumption in each class, suitable for spatial visualisation. GIS is used to classify and visualise the results. The results show a clear contrast in the energy consumption between buildings in highly urbanised areas and those in the suburbs. It was found that the high energy consumption belongs to the areas where the shopping, commercial, industrial and sports buildings are located and already developed. The energy consumption bounds were used to enrich a semantic 3D city model of Sofia. This model can be used for further analysis of energy supply, climate change, urban heat islands, and urban health as well as for calculating the climate scenarios. An extensive outline of the utility and directions for future development of the atlas are provided.