Abstract
The research of comfort in urban public spaces has become increasingly important for improving environmental quality and encouraging people spend more time in outdoor activities. Among numerous approaches to understand comfort perception, the rational indices based on heat balance theory have prevailed to guide the research and practice in urban planning, design, and management. The limitations of a solely rational index-based approach reveal the necessity for a more comprehensive understanding of comfort by considering a wider range of influential factors from both individual and environmental perspectives during the assessing process. This study conceptualizes individuals’ comfort in urban public spaces as a latent construct, which is measured by indicators regarding perceptions on multifarious meteorological variables. The conceptual framework has been introduced involving hypothetical relationships among individuals’ comfort, attitudes, and environmental perceptions in urban public spaces. A series of field work including microclimate measurements and questionnaire-based surveys were carried out in two public squares in Changsha, China. Based on the dataset derived from 372 questionnaires and related meteorological measurements, this paper examines the relationships between the physical microclimatic variables, individuals’ socio-demographical characteristics and environmental attitudes and perceptions, and outdoor comfort assessment. The estimation results of the structural equation model quantitatively verified the conceptual framework at large, as many hypothetical relationships are identified, which indicates the importance of individuals’ role and the psychological factors in modeling comfort perception. This approach improves the understanding of comfort assessment, contributes to improving the quality of urban environment and the practices of urban planning and management.
Highlights
A growing concern with population inflation and urban expansion along with the heat island intensification, the lack of ventilation and decrease of greenspace in highly densified built up areas has resulted in deterioration of many climate-induced urban problems [1,2]
We address the new conceptual framework and conclude this study by proposing an approach to integrate individuals’ socio-demographical characteristics, long-established attitudes towards urban public spaces, momentary general environmental perceptions and rational thermal index into comfort modeling
As depicted in the conceptual framework, comfort assessment, long-established attitudes towards urban public spaces and momentary general environmental perceptions are constructed as three latent variables by relevant indicators in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
Summary
A growing concern with population inflation and urban expansion along with the heat island intensification, the lack of ventilation and decrease of greenspace in highly densified built up areas has resulted in deterioration of many climate-induced urban problems [1,2]. The rapid urbanization is expected to emerge globally in the a few decades which will lead to more and more people becoming urban inhabitants [3], and inevitably cause the expanding demand for more living and working spaces. The general trend of climate change is increasing pressures to the urban environments and posing environmental challenges to the urban planning for the outcome of public health and sustainable development. The awareness of the importance of urban bioclimatic conditions is growing along with the demand in the resilient and climate-responsive design for comfortable outdoor open spaces [4–9].
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