Modeling of urban form against sand accumulation in the city of Gourara in southern Algeria

Abstract

In our present research, we focus on the modeling of airflow related to extreme weather events and natural disasters, such as sand accumulation, with urban form studies. The objective is to find which urban form can promote sand passing and reduce as much as possible stagnation of sand in the built environment (streets, alleys, etc.). The urban form design is discussed through the numerical simulation of airflow. We simulate the airflow behavior, especially the wind velocity, which is responsible of sand stagnation in some specific configurations. Various configurations of buildings were considered and different airflow behaviors were thus observed. The method of modeling was verified by following some best practice guidelines. In this study, a correlation was made ​​between wind velocity and morphological parameters such as width of buildings and widths of the street that separates buildings, building height and building density. Results of our simulations show that some types of urban form can promote wind speed and help blow away the accumulated sand in the city.