Association between Three-Dimensional Built Environment and Urban Air Temperature: Seasonal and Temporal Differences

Abstract

Climate change and the urban heat island phenomenon are increasingly important issues in urban thermal environments. However, there is a lack of research on the relationship between three-dimensional built environments and air temperature. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide policy suggestions that could be used to improve urban thermal environments by analyzing the effect of the three-dimensional built environment of an urban space on the urban air temperature according to changes in time (i.e., season, time of day). Using data from 236 automatic weather stations (AWSs) in Seoul, Korea, this study focused on three-dimensional built environmental variables and land use variables that affect air temperature in terms of season and time. The analysis results indicate that the sky view factor and porosity were lower in urban areas, with higher sky view factor and porosity values associated with lower air temperature. This study also indicates that surface roughness is higher in urban areas, with higher surface roughness associated with higher air temperature. These results suggest that urban design practices should consider the three-dimensional built environment when planning urban development and urban regeneration projects in order to improve the urban thermal environment.

Diurnal and Seasonal Variations in the Effect of Urban Environmental Factors on Air Temperature: A Consecutive Regression Analysis Approach

“…Second, selecting a time period for each season is also challenging. For example, Park et al [13] designated spring, summer, fall, and winter as April, August, October, and January, respectively. Notably, a few studies have divided the season based on climate conditions or by examining whether the average temperature is higher or lower than a certain degree [18,56].…”

“…The fundamental theories regarding the influence of building geometry on UHI were developed earlier by Nunez and Oke [9] and Oke [10], which has led to several empirical studies in recent years [9,10]. These studies focused on morphological indicators such as the sky view factor (SVF), urban porosity, and surface roughness [11][12][13]. Moreover, they suggested that the geometric configuration of buildings can affect the urban temperature both directly and indirectly by influencing other factors such as solar radiation and ventilation performances [14,15].…”

Controlling factors of microclimate in blocky surface layers of two nearby relict rock glaciers (Niedere Tauern Range, Austria)

“…Average sky view factors (viewshed analysis; ArcGIS v10.5; e.g. Park et al 2017) for SRG and DRG indicate slightly more topographic shading and consequently a slightly lower share of clear sky visibility in the more elongated valley / cirque of DRG compared to the wider SRG cirque. For SRG an average sky view factor of 0.64 and for DRG of 0.61 is computed (with a standard deviation of 0.03 for both).…”

Positional error modeling of sky‐view factor measurements within urban street canyons

“…Simulation‐based methods have been developed to estimate the SVF on a large scale based on the digital surface model (DSM) and 3D building models (Chen et al., 2012). However, the simulation‐based method relies heavily on the high quality of DSM or 3D building models, which leads to the problem of affordability (Lindberg & Grimmond, 2010; Park, Ha, & Lee, 2017).…”