Future scenarios of thermal bioclimatic conditions in a humid tropical city under urban development

Vicente De Paulo Rodrigues Da Silva,Eduardo Rodrigues Viana De Lima,Lincoln Eloi De Araújo,Romildo Morant De Holanda,Joel Silva Santos,Enio Pereira De Sousa

doi:10.4136/ambi-agua.2092

Vicente De Paulo Rodrigues Da Silva, Eduardo Rodrigues Viana De Lima + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4136/ambi-agua.2092

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Abstract

Urbanization modifies the heat balance in urban areas and has negative effects on landscape, aesthetics, energy efficiency, human health and the inhabitants’ quality of life. This work evaluated future scenarios of bioclimatic conditions for João Pessoa, a humid tropical city in Northeast Brazil. The scenarios were determined based on trends in air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed for the time period from 1968 to 2015. The study was performed for two distinct periods of three months each (dry and wet seasons) using data from weather stations equipped with thermo-hygrometers and cup anemometers located in nine representative areas of the city. Trends in air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and effective temperature index (ET index) time series were evaluated using the Mann-Kendall test. Results indicated that the air temperature showed an increasing trend of 0.34°C/decade, whereas the relative humidity showed a decreasing trend of 0.49%/decade and the wind speed values ranged from 1.3 ms-1 to 3.80 ms-1. These trends are statistically significant according to the Mann-Kendall test (p<0.05). The air temperature increased between the 1980s and 2010s, which corresponds to a period of rapid urbanization of the city. Future environmental conditions in João Pessoa will be determined in accordance with the urbanization processes.

Highlights

Since microclimatic conditions have a major influence on people’s comfort, the issue of outdoor thermal comfort has attracted wide attention in recent years
Because vegetation can mitigate the effects of urban heat island intensity (UHI) caused by artificial urban land uses, the UHI problem is more severe in cities with large populations and extensive economic activities (Tseliou et al, 2010)
The variability in these parameters corresponds to minimum effective temperature index (ET) values during the first hour of the day; this effect is most pronounced on January 24th during the dry season and on August 16th during the rainy season

Summary

Introduction

Since microclimatic conditions have a major influence on people’s comfort, the issue of outdoor thermal comfort has attracted wide attention in recent years. The temporal and spatial behavior of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed are mainly affected by meso- and micro-scale differences in the natural and artificial morphology (Gulyás et al, 2006; Han et al, 2009; Matzarakis et al, 2010). These effects are significant for different levels of regional and urban planning, such as the design of urban parks, assessment of radiation conditions in urban canyons, and a variety of other applications. Because vegetation can mitigate the effects of UHIs caused by artificial urban land uses, the UHI problem is more severe in cities with large populations and extensive economic activities (Tseliou et al, 2010)

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