The Impact of Greenspace on Thermal Comfort in a Residential Quarter of Beijing, China

Abstract

With the process of urbanization, a large number of residential quarters, which is the main dwelling form in the urban area of Beijing, have been developed in last three decades to accommodate the rising population. In the context of intensification of urban heat island (UHI), the potential degradation of the thermal environment of residential quarters can give rise to a variety of problems affecting inhabitants’ health. This paper reports the results of a numerical study of the thermal conditions of a residential quarter on a typical summertime day under four greening modification scenarios, characterized by different leaf area density (LAD) profiles. The modelling results demonstrated that vegetation could evidently reduce near-surface air temperature, with the combination of grass and mature trees achieving as much as 1.5 °C of air temperature decrease compared with the non-green scenario. Vegetation can also lead to smaller air temperature fluctuations, which contribute to a more stable microclimate. The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) was then calculated to represent the variation of thermal environment of the study area. While grass is helpful in improving outdoor thermal comfort, trees are more effective in reducing the duration and expansion of suffering from severe heat stress. The results of this study showed that proper maintenance of vegetation, especially trees, is significant to improving the outdoor thermal environment in the summer season. In consideration of the deficiency of the current code in the management of greenspace in residential areas, we hope the results reported here will help promote the improvement of the code and related regulations for greenspace management.

Diversification of Land Surface Temperature Change under Urban Landscape Renewal: A Case Study in the Main City of Shenzhen, China

“…Besides controlling the city's total number of green spaces through urban planning, other indicators should be introduced. Numerous studies in different countries have shown that the association of vegetation coverage and impervious surface parameters might be more closely related to thermal indicators than landscape area [39][40][41][42][43][44]. This study showed that the conversion between Green and Grey landscapes might not occur in the same intensity per unit area, resulting in a mismatch of LST increase and decrease.…”

Applicability of Feng Shui Thoughts for Sustainable Space Planning and Evaluation in Korea Verified Using Three-Dimensional Digital Mapping and Simulations

“…Fourth, the UTCI (universal thermal climatic index), an index of the predicted body heat, was used to analyze comfort for the thermal environment [45,46]. It is expected that overall environments of myeong-dang sites according to feng shui thoughts could be scientifically analyzed through the above methods and that meaningful quantitative characteristics of its topographical types could be examined using comparative analyses [47,48].…”

“…where feng shui is approached in terms of geography [10,48]. On the contrary, it may not be possible to consider environmental conditions separately from the geographical aspect if the research is conducted in terms of an environmental aspect, as presented previously in Chang's article [28].…”

Does Sars-Cov-2 threaten our dreams? Effect of Quarantine on Sleep Quality and Body Mass Index

“…In a sense, carbohydrate-rich foods can be a way of self-medicating anti stress and the positive effect of carbohydrates on mood is proportional to the glycemic index of foods. For this reason they could represent the best allies to ght quarantine-related low mood thus giving rise to the so called 'emotional eating' [9][10][11]. This condition is further exacerbated by the disruption in everyday life that along with continuously hearing or reading about the pandemic, could have led to a stressful condition pushing people toward overeating and increasing the risk of developing obesity.…”