On the outdoor thermal perception and comfort of a Mediterranean subject across other Koppen-Geiger's climate zones

Abstract

The climatic conditions characterizing the troposphere affect the outdoor activities of the population which, in turn, characterize the anthroposphere. Over the past years recent studies examined a possible analytical definition of the outdoor thermal comfort for different types of population acclimatized to their specific residency area. Thanks to the use of the MOCI (Mediterranean Outdoor Comfort Index: an index used to predict the thermal perception of the Mediterranean population in an outdoor environment), the present study aimed at analyzing the psychophysiological response of a Mediterranean subject with respect to climatic conditions different from the original ones after having experienced a quick change. Indeed, thermal stress and discomfort might affect deeply the ability of the subject to carry out outdoor activities. This condition determines the necessity of possessing useful information to plan the best period to perform a journey in distant places and/or perform useful actions that will make the outdoor activity as much comforting as possible (choosing the proper clothes with the right thermal insulation). For this reason, the worldwide environmental conditions during an average year were examined. To be more specific, this study focused its attention on the editing of seasonal spatial maps with the MOCI level curves and on the temporal analysis of the MOCI values characterizing those 6 different cities (one for each continent) reporting the higher number of foreign arrivals.