Overview
| CityBES is a web-based data and computing platform, focusing on energy modeling and analysis of a city's building stock to support district or city-scale efficiency programs. CityBES uses an international open data standard, CityGML, to represent and exchange 3D city models. CityBES employs EnergyPlus to simulate building energy use and savings from energy efficient retrofits. CityBES provides a suite of features for urban planners, city energy managers, building owners, utilities, energy consultants and researchers. CityBES won a 2022 R&D 100 Award. An overview video is available here. | ![]() |

Publications
- W. Zhang, K. Sun, H. Li, L. Rodriguez-Garcia, M. Heleno, T. Hong. Calibration of Urban Building Energy Model Using Smart Meter Data for District Peak Load Prediction. Applied Energy, 2026.
- Z. Deng, Y. Xu, T. Hong. Quantum Computing Approach for Building Surface Sunlit in Urban-scale Energy Modeling. Energy and Buildings, 2025.
- Y. Xu, W. Zhang, M. Wei, T. Hong. Mapping Heat Vulnerability in Cities: A Tale of Two California Cities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2025.
- T. Hong, J. Malik, D. Yan, Z. Liu, J. Langevin. Ten Questions on Building Stock Modeling to Inform Energy Efficiency and Sustainability. Building and Environment. 2025.
- T. Hong, S.H. Lee, W. Zhang, H. Li, K. Sun, J. Kace. Informing Electrification Strategies of Residential Neighborhoods with Urban Building Energy Modeling. Building Simulation, 2024.
- R. Lopez, T. Hong, M.C. Martinez. Optimizing urban housing design: improving thermo-energy performance and mitigating heat emissions from buildings – a Latin American case study. Urban Climate, 2024.
- Y. Xu, P. Vahmani, A. Jones, T. Hong. Anthropogenic Heat from Buildings in Los Angeles County: A simulation framework and assessment. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2024.
- S.H. Lee, T. Hong, M. Le, L. Medina, Y. Xu, A. Robinson, M.A. Piette. Assessment of Energy and Thermal Resilience Performance to Inform Climate Mitigation of Multifamily Buildings in Disadvantaged Communities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2024.
- S. Haddad, W. Zhang, R. Paolini, K. Gao, M. Altheeb, A. Al Mogirah, A. BinMoammar, T. Hong, A. Khan, C. Cartalis, A. Polydorose and M. Santamouris. Quantifying the Energy Impact of Heat Mitigation Technologies at the Urban Scale. Nature Cities. 2024.
- T. Hong, S.H. Lee, W. Zhang, K. Sun, B. Hooper, J. Kim. Nexus of Electrification and Energy Efficiency Retrofit of Commercial Buildings at the District Scale. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2023.
- N. Luo, X. Luo, M. Mortezazadeh, M. Albettar, W. Zhang, D. Zhan, L. Wang, and T. Hong. A data schema for exchanging information between urban building energy models and urban microclimate models in coupled simulations. Building Performance Simulation, 2022.
- K. Sun, P. Kusumah, W. Zhang, M. Wei, T. Hong. Exploring Decarbonization and Clean Energy Pathways for Disadvantaged Communities in California. International COBEE Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2022.
- L. Teso, L. Carnieletto, K. Sun, W. Zhang, A. Gasparella, P. Romagnoni, A. Zarrella, T. Hong. Large scale energy analysis and renovation strategies for social housing in the historic city of Venice. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 2022.
- P. Vahmani, X. Luo, A. Jones, T. Hong. Anthropogenic heating of the urban environment: an investigation of feedback dynamics between urban micro-climate and decomposed anthropogenic heating from buildings. Building and Environment, 2022.
- Z. Zeng, W. Zhang, K. Sun, M. Wei, T. Hong. Investigation of pre-cooling as a recommended measure to improve residential buildings’ thermal resilience during heat waves. Building and Environment, 2021.
- L. Carnieletto, M. Ferrando, L. Teso, K. Sun, W. Zhang, F. Causone, P. Romagnoni, A. Zarrella, T. Hong. Italian Prototype Building Models for Urban Scale Building Performance Simulation. Building and Environment, 2021.
- X. Luo, P. Vahmani, T. Hong, A. Jones. City-scale building anthropogenic heating during heat waves. Atmosphere, 2020.
- K. Sun, W. Zhang, Z. Zeng, R. Levinson, M. Wei, T. Hong. Passive cooling designs to improve heat resilience of homes in underserved and vulnerable communities. Energy and Buildings, 2021.
- T. Hong, Y. Xu, K. Sun, W. Zhang, X. Luo, B. Hooper. Urban Microclimate and Its Impact on Building Performance: A Case Study of San Francisco. Urban Climate, 2021.
- L. Carnieletto, M. Ferrando, L. Teso, K. Sun, W. Zhang, F. Causone, P. Romagnoni, A. Zarrella, T. Hong. Italian Prototype Building Models for Urban Scale Building Performance Simulation. Building and Environment, 2021.
- Y. Xu, T. Hong, W. Zhang, Z. Zeng, M. Wei. Heat Vulnerability Index Development and Mapping. SimAUD Conference 2021.
- H. Li, T. Hong, Z. Wang. Modelling and Simulation of District Heating and Cooling Systems Using CityBES. IBPSA Building Simulation Conference, 2021.
- Y. Chen, Z. Deng, X. Guo, T. Hong. Automatic and Rapid Calibration of Urban Building Energy Models by Learning from Energy Performance Database. Applied Energy, 2020.
- T. Hong, M. Ferrando, X. Luo, F. Causone. Modeling and Analysis of Heat Emissions from Buildings to Ambient Air. Applied Energy, 2020.
- M. Ferrando, F. Causone, T. Hong, Y. Chen. Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM) Tools: A State-of-the-Art Review of bottom-up physics-based approaches. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2020.
- X. Luo, T. Hong, Y.H. Tang. Modeling thermal interactions between buildings in an urban context. Energies, 2020.
- K. Sun, M. Specian, T. Hong. Nexus of Thermal Resilience and Energy Efficiency in Buildings: A case study of a nursing home. Building and Environment, 2020.
- A.T.D. Perera, V.M. Nik, D. Chen, J.L. Scartezzini, T. Hong. Quantifying the impacts of climate change and extreme climate events on energy systems. Nature Energy, 2020.
- T. Hong, Y. Chen, X. Luo, N. Luo, S.H. Lee. Ten questions on urban building energy modeling. Building and Environment, 2020.
- Y. Chen, T. Hong, X. Luo, B. Hooper. Development of City Buildings Dataset for Urban Building Energy Modeling. Energy and Buildings, 2018.
- R. Jain, X. Luo, G. Sever, T. Hong, C. Catlett. Representation and evolution of urban weather boundary conditions in Downtown Chicago. Building Performance Simulation, 2018.
- T. Hong, Y. Chen, M.A. Piette, X. Luo. Modeling City Building Stock for Large Scale Energy Efficiency Improvement using CityBES. ACEEE Summer Study in Building Energy Efficiency, 2018.
- X. Luo, T. Hong. Modeling building energy performance in urban context. ASHRAE BPAC / SimBuild Conference, Chicago, 2018.
- Y. Chen, T. Hong. Impacts of Building Geometry Modeling Methods on the Simulation Results of Urban Building Energy Models. Applied Energy, 2018.
- Y. Chen, T. Hong, M.A. Piette (2017). Automatic generation and simulation of urban building energy models based on city datasets for city-scale building retrofit analysis. Applied Energy, 2017.
- T. Hong, Y. Chen, S.H. Lee, M.A. Piette. CityBES: A Web-based Platform to Support City-Scale Building Energy Efficiency. Urban Computing, 2016.
- Y. Chen, T. Hong, M.A. Piette. City-Scale Building Retrofit Analysis: A Case Study using CityBES. Building Simulation, 2017.
Acknowledgment
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