Combined influence of multi-sensory comfort in winter open spaces and its association with environmental factors: Wuhan as a case study

Abstract

Open space comfort significantly affects urban well-being, particularly in dense areas. This study uses drone imagery, climate measurements, and questionnaires to explore acoustic, aesthetic, light, thermal and overall comfort in Wuhan's pedestrian street, plazas, and parks, which proposing a hypothesis in both morphological factors and meteorological factors collectively influence comfort senses, and subsequently, overall comfort. The results indicate the sky view factor (SVF) contributes to all the comfort senses. Spaces with SVF over 32.9 % have 170 % higher light comfort and 160 % higher thermal comfort than those below 13.3 %. As SVF change from under 13.3 % to over 32.9 %, mean aesthetic comfort vote increases by 134 %, while acoustic comfort declines by 36 %. With Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) from below 11.5 °C to higher than 21.5 °C, aesthetic comfort's influence weight on overall comfort rises by 85.4 %, while thermal comfort decreases by 32.4 %, indicating a falling importance of thermal but increasing that of aesthetic comfort with warmer environment. Also, the study emphasizes higher “cross-modal effects” between aesthetics and acoustic comfort compared to sunligt and thermal comfort. Research will help inform improvements to outdoor environments in similar climates.