Morphological and climate balance: Proposal for a method to analyze neighborhood urban forms by way of densification

Pacifici, Martina; Marins, Karin Regina de Castro; Catto, Vinicius de Mello; Rama, Fabrizio; Lamour, Quentin

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2017.07.023

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The average temperature of high-rise buildings is nearly as low as sparely-built agricultural lands in Taipei, suggesting a weak intensity of urban heat island effect. As cooler environments of high-rise buildings are likely attributable to shade from surrounding buildings ( Middel et al, 2014 ; Pacifici et al, 2017 ; Zheng et al, 2019 ), the higher solar altitude in subtropical regions - which reduces the shading efficacy of lower buildings - may explain the higher temperature found at low- to mid-rise buildings in Taipei ( Oke, 1986 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Urban climate research has provided insights into temperature influence from development characteristics of built environments. Factors related to planning decisions include building height to street width ratio (aspect ratio); building height to floor area ratio; building coverage ratio in relation to density/compactness, street/building orientation, and relative location within a building block ( Ali-Toudert & Mayer, 2006 ; Middel et al, 2014 ; Pacifici, de Castro Marins, de Mello Catto, Rama, & Lamour, 2017 ; Shafaghat et al, 2016 ; Tian et al, 2019 ; Unger, 2006 ). Among these attributes, the thermal effect from building height and density may be particularly sensitive to the climate difference of cities ( Alavipanah et al, 2018 ; Ali-Toudert & Mayer, 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial relationship between land development pattern and intra-urban thermal variations in Taipei

Shih

Ahmad

Chen

et al. 2020

Sustainable Cities and Society

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial relationship between land development pattern and intra-urban thermal variations in Taipei

Shih

Ahmad

Chen

et al. 2020

Sustainable Cities and Society

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“…However, urban greenery requires frequent maintenance, which increases the associated costs, particularly in hot regions that suffer from limited rainfall. This can explain the tendency to use compact design and self-shading in severely hot climate regions, such as Saudi Arabia, which can create cool local islands and enhance the livability of public open spaces [32,33].…”

Section: Shading Performance Of Public Open Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shading Performance of Public Open Spaces: A Multi-Criteria Evaluation Framework for Housing Projects

Asfour,

Mohsen,

Al-Qawasmi

2023

Buildings

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This study investigates the impact of building grouping patterns on enhancing shading in public open spaces, considering different solar orientations, housing densities, and the hot climatic conditions of Saudi Arabia. The study considered a set of environmental performance indicators, including the percentage of open space shaded areas, heat gains through the building envelope, open space surface temperature, and the natural ventilation potential of each grouping pattern of the buildings. The results showed that at a building height of five floors, the percentage of open space shaded areas ranged from 14% to 53%. However, using the suggested multi-criteria evaluation framework to consider the above-mentioned performance indicators revealed more in-depth observations. Configurations that included parallel rows of buildings staggered and centralized in the middle of the site offered the best performance in this regard. This shows that compact grouping patterns in which open spaces are decentralized offer more urban shading and protection against undesirable heat gains through the building envelope during summer. The results of this study will enable a wider exploration of different building grouping patterns, which are needed in the harsh hot climate of Saudi Arabia to respond to current rapid housing development plans.

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“…Confronted with the need to meet the housing demand on one hand and the challenge to adapt cities to climate change on the other, city planners require information about the effects of densification on urban microclimate, green space availability and its ecosystem services. The factors that influence urban climate and urban heat have been studied from the city level (e.g., Akbari & Kolokotsa, 2016;Deilami, Kamruzzaman, & Liu, 2018) to the neighbourhood scale (Pacifici, Marins, Catto, Rama, & Lamour, 2017) and single urban facets (e.g., Jamei & Rajagopalan, 2018;Lee et al, 2020). While climate adaptation planning needs to adopt a multiscale perspective to address the Urban Heat Island as well as local thermal hotspots (Demuzere et al, 2014), the microclimatic level is the reference scale for outdoor human thermal comfort investigations (Hirashima, Katzschner, Ferreira, Assis, & Katzschner, 2018;Mayer & Höppe, 1987).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade-Offs between Urban Green Space and Densification: Balancing Outdoor Thermal Comfort, Mobility, and Housing Demand

Erlwein

Pauleit

2021

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Urban green spaces reduce elevated urban temperature through evaporative cooling and shading and are thus promoted as nature-based solutions to enhance urban climates. However, in growing cities, the supply of urban green space often conflicts with increasing housing demand. This study investigates the interplay of densification and the availability of green space and its impact on human heat stress in summer. For the case of an open-midrise (local climate zone 5) urban redevelopment site in Munich, eight densification scenarios were elaborated with city planners and evaluated by microscale simulations in ENVI-met. The chosen scenarios consider varying building heights, different types of densification, amount of vegetation and parking space regulations. The preservation of existing trees has the greatest impact on the physical equivalent temperature (PET). Construction of underground car parking results in the removal of the tree population. Loss of all the existing trees due to parking space consumption leads to an average daytime PET increase of 5°C compared to the current situation. If the parking space requirement is halved, the increase in PET can be reduced to 1.3°C–1.7°C in all scenarios. The addition of buildings leads to a higher gain in living space than the addition of floors, but night-time thermal comfort is affected by poor ventilation if fresh air circulation is blocked. The protection of mature trees in urban redevelopment strategies will become more relevant in the changing climate. Alternative mobility strategies could help to reduce trade-offs between densification and urban greening.<p>Urban green spaces reduce outdoor temperatures through evaporative cooling and shading and are thus promoted as nature based solutions to enhance urban climates. However, in growing cities, supply of urban green space often conflicts with increasing housing demand. This study investigates the interplay of densification and availability of green and its impact on outdoor human thermal comfort. For the case of an open-midrise (LCZ 5) urban redevelopment site in Munich, eight densification scenarios were elaborated with city planners and evaluated by microclimate modelling in ENVI-met. The chosen scenarios consider varying building heights, different types of densification, vegetation amount and parking space regulations. The greatest impact on physical equivalent temperature (PET) has the preservation of existing trees. Construction of underground car parking results in the removal of the tree population. Loss of all existing trees due to parking space consumption leads to an average daytime increase of 5 °C PET compared to the current situation. If the parking space requirement is halved, the increase in PET can be reduced to 1.3 to 1.7 °C in all scenarios. Adding buildings leads to a higher gain in living space than adding floors, yet night time thermal comfort is affected by poor ventilation if fresh air circulation is blocked. Protecting mature trees in urban redevelopment strategies will gain more relevance in changing climate. Alternative mobility strategies can help to reduce trade-offs between mobility, densification and microclimate.</p>

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Morphological and climate balance: Proposal for a method to analyze neighborhood urban forms by way of densification

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

Spatial relationship between land development pattern and intra-urban thermal variations in Taipei

Spatial relationship between land development pattern and intra-urban thermal variations in Taipei

Shading Performance of Public Open Spaces: A Multi-Criteria Evaluation Framework for Housing Projects

Trade-Offs between Urban Green Space and Densification: Balancing Outdoor Thermal Comfort, Mobility, and Housing Demand

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