Comfort conditions in urban open spaces in Crete

Abstract

There is an undisputable relevance between thermal environment in outdoor public spaces and their level of use. Since climatic conditions directly affect the use and activities of outdoor spaces, they should be taken into account when designing public spaces. The outdoor spaces design especially in urban areas is very critical in Southern Europe due their extended use during summertime where the urban heat island phenomenon is present. This paper presents the results of outdoor spaces field surveys conducted in four different urban open spaces in Crete. Physical on site measurements were conducted and a questionnaire survey was used in order to assess the thermal comfort of visitors. With the proposed method, a strong connection between microclimate on outdoor comfort conditions and the use of open space is revealed. The field surveys also reveal various issues regarding adaptability of users to the outdoor environment, suggesting that a purely physiological approach is inadequate in characterizing thermal comfort conditions in outdoor spaces, thus emphasizing the need for investigating different ways to quantify comfort conditions outdoors. Thermal indices like CP (Cooling power), PMV (Predicted Mean Vote), PET (Psysiological Equivalent Temperature) and SET (Standard Effective Temperature) are used to evaluate the assessment of urban microclimate. Study findings also elucidate design of outdoor public spaces in hot and humid regions.