We want to show that we are shading our hardscape but performing the necessary modeling of vegetation shadows at 10am, 12noon and 3pm on the summer solstice is proving difficult. However we do have accurate GIS aerial data that shows the canopy coverage over the hardscapes and from that we can easily determine the area shaded. Would this be an acceptable approach?
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David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1979 thumbs up
August 31, 2011 - 2:02 pm
I have heard of projects using aerial photos to show compliance on large sites, but they indicated those photos were taken on summer solstice... seems like in some cases you would have to know the date and time of those photos to know if you are getting adequate shading.
I imagine you might need to create a composite image of the site plan and aerial photos to correlate the hardscape areas with the canopy areas. If the photos show a very extensive canopy cover of your hardscaping on a date and time that is reasonably close to those conditions you might be able to convince the reviewers that you meet the requirements, or you might try to get photos from several different dates and times.