The Impact of Natural Elements on Environmental Comfort in the Iranian-Islamic Historical City of Isfahan

Abstract

Cities directly influence micro-climates. As the urbanization expands, and the green spaces diminish, the heat islands begin to emerge. An old technique used during the past centuries — in both hot and dry climates of the central cities of Iran — was the moderation of micro-climates via water and plants. With a diachronic approach to the study of the historical Chahar Bagh Street in Isfahan, this paper investigates the impact of the structural changes on its micro-climate in three different scenarios, i.e., the street with its features during the Safavid Era (from 1501 to 1736); the street in its current status; and finally a probable critical condition resulting from complete elimination of natural elements from the environment. The mixed strategy used in this study relies on logical reasoning and software-assisted evaluation for comparing the three scenarios. The predicted mean vote (PMV) model was used for measuring thermal comfort. The results indicate that the evaluated comfort-providing area in the Safavid scenario is 7–17 times more favorable than the others. Moreover, the temperature in the contemporary era was found to be 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler than that of the critical status scenario.