Assessing the thermal risks for residents and visitors in traditional Street-facing Dwellings with Eaves Gallery during an extreme heatwave event

Abstract

Street-facing Dwelling with Eaves Gallery (SDEG) was built for both commercial activities and residential needs. The Eaves Gallery (EG) and courtyards with small sky view factor (SVF) in those dwellings were shaped to prevent the residences or pedestrians from strong sun radiation, heavy rain, or snow. As a climate-adaptive vernacular architecture, it has lasted for hundreds of years in the large areas along the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) of China. Yet, few studies systematically investigate the thermal conditions of these dwellings and validate their climate resilience quantitatively under heat waves. Concerning the extreme weather caused by climate change, this study investigated indoor, semi-outdoor, and outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) of the SDEG in Xiaohe Town of Hubei province, China during the heatwave event in 2022. While mobile and fixed measurements were carried out to capture the data of thermal environments, the skin temperature measurements were implemented to understand the thermal responses of the households. The results found that SDEG was qualified to help indoor households avoid the heat risk with proper thermal behaviors but cannot provide a safe thermal environment for the pedestrians in the semi-outdoor or outdoor space of the EG street throughout the day. This study demonstrated the negative effects of heatwaves on not only the walking visitors but also the livelihood of the residents, which is an appeal to scholars to attention to the heat risks and thermal behaviors of marginalized groups living in various vernacular buildings within the context of high-temperature scenarios under the heatwave conditions.