Study on Environment Regulation of Residential in Severe Cold Area of China in Winter: Base on Outdoor Thermal Comfort of the Elderly

Abstract

Overwhelming evidence shows that the harsh climate conditions are affecting urban residents who are living in severe cold areas of China in winter, particularly affecting the frequency and length of outdoor space usage of the elderly. This study aims (1) to establish the modified model which is suitable for the harsh climate region, (2) to verify whether the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) index can be evaluated for the outdoor thermal comfort of older adults in severe cold areas of China in winter, (3) to draw the thermal comfort map that is based on the former conclusions. In this study, the outdoor environments in typical residential areas for the elderly of Changchun, China, has been investigated by using field measurement, questionnaire survey, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The results show that the wind direction is the important aspects of model modification and quite possibly one of the most neglected. In addition, it is convenient to evaluate outdoor thermal comfort of the elderly on the basis of the PET index and the neutral PET temperature of elderly people who live in severe cold areas of China in winter is −0.5 degrees Celsius. According to the thermal comfort map, the park green land of urban residential is the best area for the elderly.

Exploration of Exercise Characteristics and Psychological Impact of Cold Urban Elderly Based on Multivariate Data Analysis

“…Influence. In their old age, older people in cold urban areas will pay more attention to keeping their life private [5].…”

“…Cold cities are characterized by low average annual temperatures, obvious seasonal changes, long winters, less sunshine, and shorter days [1]. In winter, low temperature, snow, freezing, and other climatic characteristics will cause a lot of inconvenience for the elderly to travel and exercise, and most of the outdoor fitness facilities are difficult to use, which have a greater impact on the outdoor fitness exercise of the elderly and restrictions [2][3][4][5][6]. Therefore, the elderly population in cold cities has a greater demand for indoor sports and fitness, especially in winter, and active participation in indoor fitness can effectively compensate for the lack of outdoor sports and create more favorable conditions for the elderly to enjoy a colorful sports life [7].…”

Assessment of Outdoor Pedestrian Ventilation Performance While Controlling Building Array Scale and Density

“…In the last few decades, numerous investigations have been conducted to study urban ventilation [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. In the case of street canyons, the flow regimes are different for changing values of the aspect ratio [25,26].…”

“…The wind speed in the typical meteorological year was used as the boundary condition. In order to compare with the previous studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32], the wind direction here ANSYS Fluent was used as the CFD solver. Compared with the simulation setting of the reduced-scale building blocks in Section 2.3, only the boundary conditions were changed.…”

“…Good ventilation facilitates the discharge of heat in cities, which helps improve people's comfort and health. The effect of ventilation on urban comfort has been analyzed in many studies [17][18][19][20][21][22], and empirical and modeling studies have shown that higher wind speeds in specific conditions reduce the physiological equivalent temperature [23,24] compared with that under the same conditions but without any wind or at low wind velocities; thus, comfort is significantly improved. Therefore, research on urban ventilation is of great significance.…”