This paper makes the case that a significant factor in the failure to ensure adequate daylighting performance for interior spaces is often due to the inadequacy of methods used at the early stages of planning. All of the methods currently used for daylight/sunlight planning share common failings: they cannot make meaningful estimations of performance at the outset, nor can the methods used be extended/refined to overcome these failings. Thus, it is argued, a new approach is required. The paper gives an overview of the history and development of methods to predict performance; from the conception of the daylight factor to climate-based daylight modelling. The impact of prescriptive planning regulations is described using New York City as the example. The paper concludes with an outline of a new modelling schema which can provide the much needed link between the real-world practicalities of building planning and the need to determine realistic indicators of building performance at the earliest stages of obtaining planning consent.

本文论证了未能确保室内空间充足采光性能的一个重要因素通常是由于在规划的早期阶段使用的方法不足。当前用于日光/阳光规划的所有方法都有共同的缺点：它们不能在一开始就对性能进行有意义的估计，也不能扩展/改进所使用的方法来克服这些缺点。因此，有人认为，需要一种新的方法。该论文概述了预测性能的方法的历史和发展；从日光因子的概念到基于气候的日光建模。以纽约市为例描述了规范性规划法规的影响。