In this study, we conducted a detailed analysis of the spatial distribution and changing trends of solar radiation in Shanghai city for the years 2013 and 2019, based on street view data and a solar radiation model. We found that the overall solar radiation in 2019 was lower than in 2013, which could be attributed to the increased tree shade effect in urban streets. In terms of spatial distribution, the reduction in solar radiation was more evident in the Pudong area, while the solar radiation in the central urban area remained largely unchanged. Moreover, we discovered a consistent linear increase in the reduction of urban solar radiation from the inner to outer city spaces. The decrease in solar radiation levels was negatively correlated with the distance from the city center, reflecting the urban construction strategy during the six-year period, with stronger greening and shading effects towards the outer city areas.

The results of this project help us understand the differences in solar radiation distribution across various areas and time periods in a city, providing valuable information for studying factors that impact solar radiation in urban environments, such as tree shading, building height, and density. Additionally, this research offers more details for the study of thermal comfort, contributing to the optimization of urban planning and greening policies.

Please visit our GitHub repository for more detailed information and visualizations related to this study.

The research is carried out under the SHAPC-lab and the lab director & the corresponding author:Jie He academic social networks page:
http://faculty.hitsz.edu.cn/hejie

For more information related to the research, please follow the laboratory's WeChat Official Account:

• Jupyter notebook
• ArcGIS software

• Pillow
• Pandas
• Numpy
• Matplotlib
• geopandas

• calculation and drawing figure source code
  processing_code
  
• Solar radiation results
  streetview_data
  
• Solar radiation and street view collection point data
  gis_data