Empirical and Numerical Approaches in Urban Microclimate Modeling: Investigation on the Reliability

Abstract

AbstractUrban climate modeling indicates a significant development in accomplishing the urgent solutions to the current urban climate change challenge. As the demand for sustainable urban development continue to grow, researchers have derived range of strategies and methodologies to explore the urban issues. Direct field measurements and data collection have been the popular approach for urban microclimate studies. However, in recent times, numerical simulation approaches have become increasingly popular. This study presents the urban microclimate modeling of a tropical outdoor space with dense building blocks using empirical and numerical approaches. This investigation covers the evaluation of air temperature, air movement, and relative humidity. The results revealed that the two approaches are significantly correlated. However, this study points out that numerical modeling is a reliable approach in performing the hypothetical urban microclimate modeling in the high-rise building blocks. The findings therefore suggest that numerical approach is better in the study of Urban Heat Island for strategic mitigation purpose than empirical approach.KeywordsUrban configurationsUrban microclimateReliability studyENVI-met simulationTropical context