| History |
General context - IDMP development - IDMP documentation - The web server
General context The energy crisis of the 70s has pushed building designers and owners to look for daylight as an efficient way to save energy. In the 80s, numerous research projects were undertaken on that subject. However, very few measurements of daylight had been performed and the models which existed had not been validated over a wide range of climate. It appeared quite quickly that the lack of knowledge on the outdoor daylight climate was impeding the evaluation of the performance of daylighting systems. An international collaboration on daylight measurement was required, thus the IDMP.
The IDMP development The International Daylight Measurement Programme (IDMP) was initiated in the framework of Technical Committee 3.07 of the CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) by Derrick Kendrick of the University of Adelaide, Australia. Meetings of the Technical Committee 3.07 were held several times: 1985 in Lausanne, 1986 in Long Beach, California, 1987 in Venice, 1988 in Cambridge, U.K., 1989 in Budapest and 1990 in Moscow. The year 1991 was labelled the International Daylight Measurement Year (IDMY) and a large meeting was held in Melbourne, Australia in July 1991, on the occasion of the CIE quadrennial conference. Researchers around the world took this opportunity to start measurement stations. For the Melbourne meeting, TC 3.07 produced a draft version of a document entitled «Guide to recommended practice of daylight measurement». It provided conventions for measurement practice, and recommendations on data quality control, archiving and dissemination. A final version of this document was approved in 1994. It is available on paper, from the CIE central bureau in Vienna, as technical report CIE 108:1994. Through this document, TC 3.07 set up the framework within which each IDMP station operates (more on that in the «How to» pages). Besides TC 3.07, another CIE technical committee TC 3.25 was organized in 1991, with Mr. Kendrick as the chairperson. TC 3.25 was in charge of the coordination and the development of the IDMP and its data. Mr Kendrick retired from the chair of TC 3.25 in 1993 and Prof. Hiroshi Nakamura, from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan was nominated as the new chairperson. At the same time, two secretaries were nominated: Dr. Yasuko Koga, from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and Dr. Dominique Dumortier, from the Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat (ENTPE), in Vaulx-en-Velin, France. In 1991, the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHCP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) started a new task. This task focused on measuring and modelling spectral radiation affecting solar systems and buildings. It was conducted from September 1991 until August 1994 and was led by Dr. Fritz Kasten, Operating agent of Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) in Hamburg, Germany. A subtask of this task (subtask 17E) was directly related to the IDMP. It dealt with broad-band visible radiation data acquisition and analysis and was led by Dr. Richard Perez, of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA), NY, USA. The members of this subtask indicated a strong interest in producing a printed document gathering worldwide information on the IDMP stations.
The Subtask 17E document on the IDMP
network ENTPE, the French participant took the responsibility for collecting information on all the IDMP stations in the World. It suggested a format to describe the stations which was first presented in September 1992, in Garston, UK, at a meeting of the Joule programme of the Commission of the European Communities. This format was then discussed and adopted by the group. It was then presented at a meeting of the IEA SHCP Task 17 held in Lyon, in January, 1993. A new page containing maintenance information was added and all the participants agreed on the format. ENTPE contacted various participants in the IDMP programme with the help of the participants of the Joule programme, the experts working for Task 17, the chairman of CIE TC 3.07 Prof. Hiroshi Nakamura of Kyushu University, Japan and Mr J. Derrick Kendrick from Adelaide, Australia. The format was sent to all participants who responded by providing the information required to fill the forms. Prof. H. Nakamura gathered information and prepared the forms for the various stations in Asia, particularly Japan. ENTPE did the same for all the other stations. All the forms were sent back for comments to each IDMP participant, when necessary corrections were made. In August 1994, at the end of the IEA Task 17, a printed document was produced giving detailed information on the 43 IDMP stations. It was sent in August 1994 to all members of the IDMP network, very few were left for distribution outside of the network. Since the IEA Task 17 was closed, there was no fund to produce additional printouts.
Toward the Web server The IDMP network was still evolving, new stations being created, older ones ceasing operation... The Technical Committee 3.25 of the CIE took the lead in maintaining the information on the IDMP network. A difficult task, since it required a perfect coordination between the University of Kyushu in Japan, ENTPE in France (secretaries of the TC) and all the stations spread out in the world, this work being based on a voluntary effort (there is no fund from the CIE). An update of the IEA document was planned for the end of 1995, then delayed to 1996 and finally to 1997. There has been little exchange between the members of the IDMP network. Due to a general lack of fund, many researchers have not been able to travel to take part to the meetings of TC 3.25. The development and the growth of the Internet in the recent years has provided to the IDMP network a solution to the difficulties in updating the station documentation and in communicating experience, reports, data: a WEB server... As an exercise in Web server development, ENTPE has dedicated the winter of 1996/1997 to develop the IDMP network web server. The objectives were: (1) to provide a central access to information on the IDMP: how it was created ?, how to set up a station ?, what are the activities of TC 3.25 ?, what reports, software are available ? (2) to provide information specific to each station: where it is located ?, who should I contact to get the data ?, what sensors are used ?, do they have their own server ?. This information is now organized as a database, it is much easier to create and update, and the Internet allows for fast correction and publication. We at ENTPE, hope that this server will give a new life to the network and motivate international collaboration on the use and the analysis of the IDMP data. |