Impact of windbreak design on microclimate in hot regions during cold waves: Numerical investigation

Abstract

Winter cold wave adaptation strategies in hot climates due to climate change didn’t receive the deserved attention from previous studies. Therefore, this study comprehensively investigates the impact of various windbreak parameters on mitigating winter cold stress in hot steppe-arid climate. A microclimate model for a residential campus was built and validated through on-site measurement on a typical winter day to assess thirty-two scenarios for tree characteristics and spatial configuration windbreak parameters based on PET, wind speed, and Air Temperature (AT). Moreover, four configurations, that had best results on mitigating cold stress in winter, were tested during typical summer conditions to couple the assessment of cold and hot seasons. Additionally, environmental analysis for all scenarios was conducted. The results revealed that the most effective parameters for mitigating cold stress are tree distribution, Leaf Area Density (LAD), row number, spacing, and shape. Double rows of high LAD and medium height trees with small spacing yielded the best cold stress mitigation effect. Furthermore, the windbreak reduced the cold stress in the morning and night by 19.31% and 18.06%, respectively. It reduced AT and wind speed at night by 0.79 °C and 2.56 m/s, respectively. During summer, very hot PET area was reduced by 21.79% and 19.5% at 12:00 and 15:00, respectively.