Thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces: Analysis across different European countries

Abstract

This paper presents some of the findings of the European project, RUROS, primarily concerned with the environmental and comfort conditions of open spaces in cities. The results of the microclimatic and human monitoring, in relation to the thermal environment and comfort conditions in open spaces are presented. The database consists of nearly 10,000 from field surveys in 14 different case study sites, across 5 different countries in Europe. The findings confirm a strong relationship between microclimatic and comfort conditions, with air temperature and solar radiation being important determinants of comfort, although one parameter alone is not sufficient for the assessment of thermal comfort conditions. Overall comfort levels are over 75% for all cities on a yearly basis. There is also strong evidence for adaptation taking place, both physically, with the seasonal variation in clothing and changes to the metabolic rate, as well as psychologically. Recent experience and expectations play a major role and are responsible for a variation over 10 ¡C of neutral temperatures, largely following the profile of the respective climatic temperatures on a seasonal basis, across Europe. In this context, perceived choice over a source of discomfort is another important parameter for people in open spaces.

Pedestrians' perception of environmental stimuli through field surveys: Focus on particulate pollution

“…Finally thermal vote is correlated with solar radiation (r= 0.13) but preference is not. These results are consistent with the RUROS field surveys (Nikolopoulou and Lykoudis, 2006).…”

“…Local microclimatic monitoring was combined with the evaluation of these conditions by users of open spaces, leading to a large database of nearly 10,000 interviews. This comparison of objective and subjective data shed light on the understanding of outdoor thermal comfort through perception (Nikolopoulou and Lykoudis, 2006) and even suggested relationships between meteorological parameters and thermal sensation and comfort, based on empirical data (Nikolopoulou et al, 2004). RUROS also evaluated the acoustic environment and psychological parameters in perceiving soundscape (Yang and Kang, 2005).…”

Use of outdoor spaces and microclimate in a Mediterranean urban area

“…Project RUROS (Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces) included extensive field surveys to understand and evaluate comfort conditions across Europe, encompassing the wide climatic variation, urban morphology, cultural background and plethora of personal differences, characterizing the users of open spaces. The evaluation and assessment of comfort conditions, based on a database of approximately 10,000 questionnaire guided interviews has been described elsewhere [8] and confirmed a strong relationship between microclimatic and comfort conditions, with air temperature and solar radiation being important determinants of comfort. This paper goes further, examining on the way the microclimatic conditions affect the use of urban open spaces in a Mediterranean climate, concentrating on the surveys carried out in Athens, Greece.…”

“…Detailed information on the environmental monitoring and the questionnaires used for the survey are described in [8]. Beyond the questionnaire guided interviews, the use of space was studied, by counting the number of people at different spaces in the area, both in terms of activities carried out, as well as in terms of patterns of use of areas found in the sun or shade.…”

“…This paper concentrates on issues related to the use of space, as opposed to peopleÕs evaluation of the comfort conditions, which have been described in [8]. People were studied in their natural environment, while issues affecting the use of space (patterns of use, groups of people using the space, preferences within the area, etc.)…”