CONFORTO TÉRMICO DOS USUÁRIOS EM VEGETAÇÃO E REVESTIMENTOS URBANOS NO CAMPUS DA UFMT EM CUIABÁ-MT

Abstract

The thermal comfort of users, when experienced within acceptable standards, contributes to the use of green areas in urban environments, both for circulation and for leisure. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the thermal comfort of users of the campus of Federal University of Mato Grosso/Cuiaba, at different types of soil covering and near arboreous vegetation. Measurements of micrometeorological variables were performed on campus. Initially four points that presented different types of floor covering, named soil, grass, concrete and asphalt were chosen on campus. Data were recorded for 43 continuous days in two seasons: hot -wet and hot-dry during the year of 2012. The data recorded during the day in the shade of mango tree (Mangiferaindica) found the lowest values of dry bulb temperatures (Tbs), compared to other places averages with different types of surfaces. The thermal perception “neutral or comfortable”, measured by Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), happened only at night from 19h to 07h. The grass surface presented comfortable thermal sensation, which may serve as indicator to increase spaces with this type of surface instead waterproof surfaces. As a result, it was observed in decision trees the preference, in the wet warm season, the variable “place” in both PET indices, highlighting the mango tree and grass surface in one group, and concrete and asphalt surfaces in another, while in the hot dry season, was indicated the wind speed as the main variable, and the variable “place” at the secondary level. Therefore, only at night it is possible to achieve the thermal comfort range. In the daytime, at shade of the mango tree, PET is much lower than at other measuring points, in both measurement periods, reaching a maximum of 35.4 °C at 15h in the second period. These findings might confirm the importance of providing shade in open spaces, and the choice, when possible, of grass surfaces (Paspalumnotatun) instead of soil, concrete or asphalt surfaces, and that concrete can be preferred over asphalt because have higher thermal exchanges in tropical climates. The percentage of comfortable and tolerable for the researched site was high, indicating a strong adaptation of users to the climate of Cuiaba/MT.