Public Urban Open Space and Human Thermal Comfort: The Implications of Alternative Climate Change and Socio-economic Scenarios

Wilson, Elizabeth; Nicol, Fergus; Nanayakkara, L. D. J. F.; Ueberjahn-Tritta, Anja

doi:10.1080/15239080701652615

Cited by 39 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In this sense, it is essential for public spaces to consider climate sensitive urban design (CSUD), which allows access to shade, sun and wind protection [24]. The design paradigms of public spaces considered by urban planning instruments have not been able to incorporate the complexity of urban climates [25], especially in Latin American cities [26].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microclimate Metrics Linked to the Use and Perception of Public Spaces: The Case of Chillán City, Chile

Smith

Henríquez

2018

Atmosphere

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This paper presents research carried out in the city of Chillán, a medium size city located on the southern limit of the Chilean Mediterranean domain, at 36 • 36 s south latitude. Chillán provides a good representative example of warm summers in central and southern Chilean cities. Five public spaces were selected, representing different typologies and relating to different urban background conditions. Users in these public spaces were observed, counted and photographed five times a day (12,14,16,18 and 20 h, local time) during a heat wave event in the summer of 2016, while meteorological parameters were measured at different points within the public space. The variables evaluated were impervious surfaces, sky view factor, H/W, azimuth, shadow, and radiation. Local public environmental management should pay attention to the complex relations between urban climate, public spaces and thermal comfort since they affect the quality of life of the most vulnerable sectors of the population. This is particularly important given the increasing episodes of elevated temperatures and intense heat waves which have occurred in the city of Chillán in recent summers, which are related to urban heat islands and climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microclimate Metrics Linked to the Use and Perception of Public Spaces: The Case of Chillán City, Chile

Smith

Henríquez

2018

Atmosphere

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“…Givoni et al discussed methodological issues and deepens problems in outdoor comfort research based in Japan and Israel [164], as well as in China [74], where other studies were also conducted [51,54,57]. Other studies were performed with reference to the following geographical areas: Canada [207], Argentina [138], Sweden [147,175,218], Portugal [131], United Kingdom [187,209], Italy [214], Morocco [132], Emirates [227], Egypt [118], Malaysia [192], Bangladesh [141], Australia [142], New Zealand [208]. Among the largest research projects, the most extensive was RUROS: Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces [37], which included field surveys carried out in seven European cities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Milan, Fribourg, Kassel, Cambridge, Sheffield.…”

Section: Review Process and Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outdoor Wellbeing and Quality of Life: A Scientific Literature Review on Thermal Comfort

et al. 2020

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While indoor comfort represents a widely investigated research topic with relation to sustainable development and energy-demand reduction in the built environment, outdoor comfort remains an open field of study, especially with reference to the impacts of climate change and the quality of life for inhabitants, particularly in urban contexts. Despite the relevant efforts spent in the last few decades to advance the understanding of phenomena and the knowledge in this specific field, which obtained much evidence for the topic's relevance, a comprehensive picture of the studies, as well as a classification of the interconnected subjects and outcomes, is still lacking. This paper reports the outcomes of a literature review aimed at screening the available resources dealing with outdoor thermal comfort, in order to provide a state-of-the-art review that identifies the main topics focused by the researchers, as well as the barriers in defining suitable indexes for assessing thermal comfort in outdoor environments. Although several accurate models and software are available to quantify outdoor human comfort, the evocated state of mind of the final user still remains at the core of this uncertain process.Energies 2020, 13, 2079 2 of 22 more people to use outdoor spaces would bring greater benefits into the physical, environmental, economic and social spheres of the cities [6-9].Scientists worldwide have thus focused their attention on this topic, making available a wide range of tools and methods to assess human thermal outdoor comfort in different climatic contexts. Over 100 biometeorological and thermal stress indexes [10] have been developed, adopting different approaches and rationales, aiming at linking the microclimatic conditions to the perceived sensations.Since the available knowledge on human thermal perception and related evaluation protocols were mainly the ones previously developed for interior spaces and other confined spaces, the assessment of outdoor conditions initially refers to these patterns [11].In fact, human thermal comfort and its assessment were studied since the beginning of the 20th Century, when the first simplified models were developed [12]. The two node model applied thermodynamics principles to energy exchanges between the human body and its thermal environment [13] for the first time during the 1930s, but it is only from the 1960s onwards that researchers were able to analyze the main climatic parameters connected to the perception of thermal comfort (e.g., air temperature, radiant temperature, air humidity, air flow velocity) when the first climate chambers were made available [14]. The cornerstone studies of Givoni [15] and Fanger [16] led in the following years to the identification of new parameters that are currently considered essential elements in the contemporary assessment of thermal comfort. The advances in the physics of heat exchange knowledge gained during the 1980s and the increasing availability of computer tools to support the research activity allowed relevant progress on...

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“…Moving to the city, the argument often goes that hotter summers will place greater demand on certain parts of urban infrastructure as people gradually start to behave differently during this time. Wilson et al (2008) take this to entail emergent patterns of outdoor socialising and sport for which planners should prepare. Yet, whilst this contention logically follows on from the data upon which they draw, this kind of inevitability should not necessarily be assumed.…”

Section: New Geographies Of Climatic Accommodationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal climate change and the indoor city worker

Hitchings¹

2010

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

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Statistical studies indicate that many people across the industrial west are decreasingly inclined to respond to seasons by behaving differently during particular phases of the year and one of the most popular explanations is they are now spending more time than ever within climatically controlled indoor environments. Yet, whilst this trend has clear implications for issues that range from sustainable resource use to wider human wellbeing, little is currently known about the cultural dynamics involved and how they are subjectively experienced. This paper argues that geographers are well placed to address this issue and demonstrates one way of doing so by using concepts of social practice to examine the working lives of professional office workers in London. Superficially this group would seem to be leading the march indoors as they spend long periods cocooned within corporate blocks pumped full of mechanically conditioned air. It was therefore worth examining the degree to which they were already insulated from the experience of seasonal change and the extent to which they ever struggled against this condition. This paper does so by considering how easily they were captured by habits that effectively rendered them oblivious to this gradual environmental process. It ends by reflecting on the wider implications of this situation in terms of usefully disrupting routine behaviour and studying climate change.key words London practice seasons offices climate behaviour adaptation

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Public Urban Open Space and Human Thermal Comfort: The Implications of Alternative Climate Change and Socio-economic Scenarios

Cited by 39 publications

References 13 publications

Microclimate Metrics Linked to the Use and Perception of Public Spaces: The Case of Chillán City, Chile

Microclimate Metrics Linked to the Use and Perception of Public Spaces: The Case of Chillán City, Chile

Outdoor Wellbeing and Quality of Life: A Scientific Literature Review on Thermal Comfort

Seasonal climate change and the indoor city worker

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