The Contribution of Urban Morphology to the Formation of the Microclimate in Compact Urban Cores: A Study in the City Center of Thessaloniki

Georgios-Rafail Kouklis,Athena Yiannakou

doi:10.3390/urbansci5020037

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution of urban morphology to the formation of microclimatic conditions prevailing within urban outdoor spaces. We studied the compact form of a city and examined, at a detailed, street plan level, elements related to air temperature, urban ventilation, and the individual’s thermal comfort. All elements examined are directly affected by both the urban form and the availability of open and green spaces. The field study took place in a typical compact urban fabric of an old city center, the city center of Thessaloniki, where we investigated the relationship between urban morphology and microclimate. Urban morphology was gauged by examining the detailed street plan, along with the local building patterns. We used a simulation method based on the ENVI-met© software. The findings of the field study highlight the fact that the street layout, the urban canyon, and the open and green spaces in a compact urban form contribute decisively both to the creation of the microclimatic conditions and to the influence of the bioclimatic parameters.

Highlights

Intense urbanization contributes to dramatic changes in built-up areas: changes in urban densities, land use, and land cover
The findings of the present study indicate a strong relationship between urban morphology and the microclimate, as defined by the local climatic conditions prevailing within the urban environment, even at a very local scale
In the context of a compactly planned and built-up city center with a Mediterranean climate, our findings, based on simulations, are generally in line with findings from previous studies regarding the impact of urban morphology on microclimate

Summary

Introduction

Intense urbanization contributes to dramatic changes in built-up areas: changes in urban densities, land use, and land cover. As a result of these changes, very high temperatures are recorded in the urban environment These high temperatures are related to controlled factors (such as urban design) and uncontrolled factors (such as meteorological parameters and environmental conditions) [1,2,3]. The parameters of the urban climate are the result of human interventions, with the most influential of these being how cities have been designed, developed, and built and the activities they host [4,5,6,7]. The microclimate is impacted by human interventions in the built environment, which often leads to unintended climatic conditions, localized within small enclaves of the urban fabric [5,6,12]

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