Integrating Microclimate into Landscape Architecture for Outdoor Thermal Comfort: A Systematic Review

Jiawei Lin,Robert Brown

doi:10.3390/land10020196

Abstract

Global climate change and urban heat island intensification are making many cities dangerously hot during heat waves and uncomfortably hot much of the time. Research has identified ways that urban environments can be designed to reduce the heat, but much of the information is too technical or has not been interpreted or communicated so as to be available to landscape architects. This study identifies ways that landscape architecture researchers have applied microclimate information in design to proactively create more thermally comfortable outdoor environments. A systematic review that assessed the growing recognition of microclimatic factors in design revealed four main approaches: principles and guidelines, strategies, mapping, and evaluation. The advantages and limitations of each have been noted, and a diagram has been developed that matches each approach with specific steps in the landscape architectural design process. The study also identified four areas where microclimate has potential for use in landscape architecture but that are currently not being very actively studied: education, modeling and visualization, policy, and ideation. Microclimatic design has the potential to enhance the health and well-being of the public through the design of thermally comfortable outdoor environments.

Highlights

The global climate has been gradually warming and the frequency and duration of extreme heat events have been increasing. These trends are being exacerbated by urban heat island intensification (UHII), resulting in increasingly dangerous heat waves in many cities [1,2]
The goal of this study was to investigate, through a structured literature review, the ways in which microclimate has been applied to landscape architecture in the scholarly literature, and to assess the growing recognition of microclimatic factors in design by identifying trends, patterns, and comprehensiveness
It focuses primarily on studies that proposed ways to design for human thermal comfort

Summary

Introduction

The global climate has been gradually warming and the frequency and duration of extreme heat events have been increasing These trends are being exacerbated by urban heat island intensification (UHII), resulting in increasingly dangerous heat waves in many cities [1,2]. Research has identified the main causes of UHII and suggested ways that cities can be designed so they are cooler rather than hotter during heat waves [3–5]. This information is often very technical and is not generally available to the professionals designing urban environments, but recently there has been an increased interest by landscape architects to apply this information, generally known as microclimate modification, to their profession.

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