Abstract
Urban streets are known to have a significant role in creating urban microclimates. This study aims to empirically quantify temporal and spatial microclimate variation within the same street configurations with pedestrian schemes. To evaluate the urban microclimates at the pedestrian level, a detailed monitoring project was performed at five representative locations near intersections, within a busy street canyon of the typical urban community in a densely populated urban city. Monitoring was done for warm and cool seasons. A strong, significant correlation (p<0.01) was found under multiple time scenarios (traffic, nontraffic, and as a whole) and for both seasons. These findings suggest that the average urban daily temperature was not significantly reduced when there was no vehicular traffic present, whereas pedestrian activity contributed to urban heat regardless of the season. These findings provide an essential foundation for further studies on urban microclimates within pedestrianized areas and will likely lead to better urban design and policy management, especially concerning thermal comfort and Quality of Life at the pedestrian level.
Highlights
Urban microclimates are the most complex forms of microclimates and one of the most studied and researched topics by geographers and meteorologists [1]
One of the most significant aspects of urban microclimates is the elevated air temperature within urban areas, as compared with surrounding rural areas, which is known as the urban heat island effects [10]
All five locations returned values above the average official urban HKO measurements for both seasons. e observations made from Figures 3 and 4 are expected since all of the five sampling measurements were conducted at the roadside of busy areas within Mong Kok, enclosed adjacent to vast amount of urban activities, whereas the official urban HKO site was in a parklike settings, away from major roads and traffic, as regulated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Summary
Urban microclimates are the most complex forms of microclimates and one of the most studied and researched topics by geographers and meteorologists [1]. Multiple urban climate studies have examined microclimate conditions influenced by environmental settings within an urban area [2,3,4,5,6,7]. In the Dhaka study, Sharmin et al [6] indicated that diversity in urban geometry (i.e., tropical warm-humid context and deep or uniform urban canyons) could create significant variation in microclimatic conditions. The environmental performances of various causative microclimate factors, including vegetation, water body, anthropogenic heat, canyon geometry, and building factors, remain uncertain [7,8,9]. A typical urban environment has limited vegetation and is set amongst high-rise buildings and transport infrastructures. Urban environments are characterized by growing energy consumption and escalating anthropogenic heat from air conditioners [11] and vehicles, as well as increasing disposal of industrial wastes and emission of toxic contaminants [12]
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