Abstract
One of the most important issues in urban studies relating to climate and environmental sustainability is the analysis of the thermal conditions of urban public spaces, especially urban streets, since this issue seems to affect the comfort of citizens using such spaces. Thus, the main aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of streetscape parameters on the thermal comfort of citizens using urban streets in a hot summer and in a hot semi-arid climate. For this purpose, Karimkhan-e-Zand Street in Shiraz, Iran, was selected as the case study. The selected street is a historical and popular public space of Shiraz. In the present study, using physical and micro-climatic data analyzed in ENVI-met v4 software, the thermal comfort conditions of Karimkhan-e-Zand in Shiraz on 10 July were simulated during the hottest day of the year. Furthermore, the relationships between physical street parameters and micro-climatic parameters and their effects on the thermal comfort index (PMV) were investigated through running a set of regressions in STATA 14 and analysis of ENVI-met v4 output maps. The results of the present study show that the thermal comfort of the citizens, which is determined by the PMV index values, is in very poor condition in almost all the studied hours, and the air temperature has the greatest effect compared to other micro-climatic parameters on the PMV index. The results of present study also show a significant relationship between the sky view factor and mean radiant temperature, as well as between the surface albedo and relative humidity. Furthermore, the type of vegetation and the aspect ratio of the street affect the level of increase in thermal comfort on the street.
Highlights
The urban microclimate is one of the most important factors in the presence of people in urban spaces and the quality of outdoor spaces, and it is highly probable that urban areas will experience a sharp rise in global temperature in future decades, because of the presence of more than half of the world’s population in cities and the consequences of global climate change [3], which are considered a threat to human health, well-being, and thermal comfort [4]
After simulating different sections in ENVI-met, simulated data including mean radiant temperature, air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and predicted mean vote (PMV) index were collected in all cells of each section
Wind speed had the lowest impact on PMV index and on thermal comfort on Karimkhan-e-Zand Street (Tables 4 and 5 and Figure 10)
Summary
The urban microclimate is one of the most important factors in the presence of people in urban spaces and the quality of outdoor spaces, and it is highly probable that urban areas will experience a sharp rise in global temperature in future decades, because of the presence of more than half of the world’s population in cities and the consequences of global climate change [3], which are considered a threat to human health, well-being, and thermal comfort [4]. Research on the improvement of urban microclimate and, creating the thermal comfort of people in urban spaces in order to reduce climate change in cities is one of the most important and interesting topics in the study of climate change. Studies on thermal comfort in the outdoors have shown that the thermal environment in these spaces
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