Effect of urban geometry and green area on the formation of the urban heat island in Baghdad city

Abstract

With the growth of cities, the ambient air temperatures (Ta) inside the urban areas are expected to be higher compared to the surrounding rural areas, creating urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. The city of Baghdad is an example of a hot dry climate cities and during summer, the UHI intensity is significantly affected by the extreme direct solar radiation and leads to outdoor thermal discomfort. Also it causes an increase in energy consumption and air pollution. This research work focuses on the effect of urban geometry and green area in the formation of heat island through a study of two different fabrics of residential neighbourhoods. The height to width ratio (H/W) and vegetation are adopted while the materials of buildings were unified in all study cases. Three-dimensional numerical software Envi-met 4.1 was utilized to analyze and assess the studied parameters including: ambient air temperature (Ta), street surface temperature (Ts) and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt). This study has given a better understanding of the role of urban geometry and green area on forming the UHI that influence on the microclimatic conditions in hot dry climate of the city of Baghdad. So that helped to generate guidelines of urban design and planning practices for a better thermal performance in hot and dry cities.

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