Bridging fragmentation across urban climate and building performance simulation: a cross-domain framework for interoperability, usability, and workflow integration

Urban areas concentrate climate-related exposures and emissions, making them key arenas for climate risk management and planning. Modelling tools are essential for understanding interactions across urban atmosphere, hydrology, energy, and land use systems. This study reviews ten urban climate modelling tools: WRF, ENVI-met, PALM, COSMO-CLM, UrbanBEATS, TUFLOW, SWMM, UWG, CitySim, and UHIM. The tools are assessed using a qualitative framework covering spatial and temporal resolution, process representation, data and setup requirements, usability, interoperability potential, and evidence of adoption. The review highlights persistent fragmentation: most tools are strong in specific domains but offer limited cross-scale integration for planning workflows. Based on the synthesis, the paper proposes principles for integration-oriented workflows, focusing on modular interoperability, transparent interfaces, exchanged variables, scale-aware preprocessing, user-oriented outputs, and pathways to integrate socioeconomic and vulnerability information into climate-risk assessment workflows. These principles support linking urban climate conditions with building and district performance simulation to strengthen decision support.