Abstract
Outdoor thermal comfort in urban residential areas is closely related to the daily lives of their residents. Nine residential communities in Wuhan, a typical city in central China, were selected as the research object. A questionnaire survey, meteorological parameter measurements, and data analyses were used to investigate the influences of factors such as the characteristics of the spatial environments and the types of outdoor activities undertaken by the residents on the levels of comfort. This investigation was expected to provide a reference for improving these levels. The results show that the level of satisfaction of those in areas with building heights of more than 15 stories reached 51%. Wind speeds were higher in medium-density areas while comfort was the highest in residential areas with densities between 22% and 30%. High-quality areas, which benefitted mainly from higher sensations of wind speed, had the highest levels of comfort but the strongest sensations of heat. A positive correlation exists between green areas and comfort. Where the green coverage rate exceeded 70.0%, temperature satisfaction increased to 33.3–66.7%. Areas with impervious paving are negatively correlated to temperature sensations. Areas of 400–625 m2 had levels of temperature satisfaction lower than 21.5%.
Highlights
In Chinese cities, green spaces are closely surrounded by buildings because of shortages in the land
Most of the conditions for outdoor thermal comfort cannot meet the needs of the outdoor activities of residents, who are eager for improvements in their current situations
According to the thermal comfort voting (TCV) diagram for summer, which are shown in Figure 4, the higher buildings result in higher levels of comfort in high-temperature weather
Summary
In Chinese cities, green spaces are closely surrounded by buildings because of shortages in the land. The residential areas in these cities are the main living spaces and directly reflect the lifestyles of their residents [4]. A study of the outdoor thermal comfort and the needs of those inhabiting residential areas is quite necessary [5,6,7,8,9]. Outdoor thermal comfort is far more difficult than indoor thermal comfort to study and evaluate [10] because of the complexities and instability of outdoor climates. Outdoor comfort is more closely related to people’s daily lives, researchers should focus on specific climate and environmental indicators and pay on the actual subjective feelings of residents, which are the starting point of our study
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