Nihal Al Sabbagh

Sharm El Sheikh, a city of an international tourist destination has adopted a green strategy for its urban development over the past years. The touristic attractions and hot microclimatic conditions created by the natural and built environment, shaped the outdoor activities of the city's life influencing the walkability patterns. The study investigated three pedestrianized promenades in Neema Bay, Soho Square, and Old Souq during the afternoon and evening walks under various thermal conditions in February, May, August, and November. The patterns were highest during the night due to the entertainment activities. The Tourism Climate Index scale (TCl) was used to identify the comfort levels and the environmental perception of the climatic conditions during each month. Likely the results revealed that 93% of the TCI votes ranged between 'ideal' and 'acceptable' while only 7% ranged between 'marginal' to 'impossible' for both the tourists and residents despite their hot thermal sensation votes. The thermal sensation votes revealed that 34% of the total subjects felt 'warm' and 'hot' were only 14% were 'uncomfortable' and 'very uncomfortable' with it. 80% of the total subjects identified that they were bothered by the lack of shade, excess heat, and solar radiation. findings from the pedestrians' preferences for the frequency of the cooling interventions desired within the space recorded that 56% of the subjects required stops at 10-20 min along their routes. The study provides recommendations to improve the walkable infrastructure using ventilation, passive cooling, shading, and greenery.

The lack of digital thermal comfort prediction models that incorporate the dynamic influences of the surrounding environment raises the need for more advanced algorithms, such as those associated with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The existing outdoor thermal comfort predictions' models depend on instantaneous grid calculations, despite the influences of antecedent spaces pedestrians endure. However, the urge to design pedestrianfriendly environments in warmer cities requires a comprehensive assessment that considers not only microclimatic conditions but also the physical, social, physiological, and psychological aspects of pedestrians. This study introduces a comprehensive thermal comfort assessment model that integrates the most influential factors in warmer conditions. Backpropagation artificial neural networks and nonlinear regression models for dynamic thermal assessment of multiagent simulations were implemented to enhance the accuracy of thermal comfort simulations and enable the integration of a walkability scoring system. The accuracy of the ensemble machine learning model reached 79%, and the comparison between different climatic data files revealed logical variations for a 20-minute' walk for all simulated agents. This paper reports the structure of the thermal comfort model, a group of validation cases, and future development prospects.

Between the synergies of environmental perception and technological advancement evolves the parallel world of the metaverse. Evolutionary virtuality intends to aid humanity in envisioning the threatened future of cities under environmental risks through tailored features. Traditionally, the sense of sight-which is the focus of virtual reality-has dominated the architectural practice. However, architects and urban designers have begun incorporating other senses into their work over the recent decade. The expanding understanding of the multimodal nature of the human mind that has evolved from cognitive neuroscience research has received little attention so far in the architecture field. This paper investigates the role of synthesized sensory experiences-such as visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and thermal sensations-in designing revolutionary settings that aim to improve people's interactions with their surrounding environments. A 15-minute experiment of an immersive experience in an office setting using virtual reality headsets is utilized to explore the role of multimodal sensory integration towards tolerance to the thermal environment. The findings revealed significant potential in using multiple senses-especially gustatoryto design thermally comfortable spaces. It is hoped that architectural design practice would progressively include our developing understanding of human senses and how they interact. This holistic approach ought to lead to the development of multisensory-inclusive workspaces that promote rather than hinder our social, cognitive, and emotional development.

Between the synergies of environmental perception and technological advancement evolves the parallel world of the metaverse. Evolutionary virtuality intends to aid humanity in envisioning the threatened future of cities under environmental risks through tailored features. Traditionally, the sense of sight-which is the focus of virtual reality-has dominated the architectural practice. However, architects and urban designers have begun incorporating other senses into their work over the recent decade. The expanding understanding of the multimodal nature of the human mind that has evolved from cognitive neuroscience research has received little attention so far in the architecture field. This paper investigates the role of synthesized sensory experiences-such as visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and thermal sensations-in designing revolutionary settings that aim to improve people's interactions with their surrounding environments. A 15-minute experiment of an immersive experience in an office setting using virtual reality headsets is utilized to explore the role of multimodal sensory integration towards tolerance to the thermal environment. The findings revealed significant potential in using multiple senses-especially gustatoryto design thermally comfortable spaces. It is hoped that architectural design practice would progressively include our developing understanding of human senses and how they interact. This holistic approach ought to lead to the development of multisensory-inclusive workspaces that promote rather than hinder our social, cognitive, and emotional development.

Recently, the urban expansions across multiple cities in Egypt favours it's inhabitant comfort at its focus aiming to elevate the quality of life. Studies that define the climatic considerations required for achieving conducive environments increased recently to supporting the sustainable development of such communities in relation to the climate change. The influence of the heat rises due to the green gas emissions has had varied across cities with different climatic regions. This study analyses the climate of eight cities at different regions in Egypt aiming to identify the months of 'hot period' when design considerations are obligatory to avoid climate change risk intensification. A thermal comfort analysis using the modified Physiological Equivalent Temperature (mPET) is used to identify levels of heat stress in outdoor conditions. The analytical framework uses historical data representing past weather changes between period 01 (2000-2008) and period 02 (2009-2017) for all cities and future data generated from WEATHERSHIFT for Cairo and Alexandria. The historical data findings indicated serious heat risks in Aswan, Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh and Siwa during the hot period of thermal sensation levels 40 o C-50 o C. Future data also revealed strong heat stress levels during summer months calling for an integrative environmental design approach to reduce artificial cooling demand.

In Dubai, the absurd dependence on air-conditioning in buildings and vehicles has led to sedentary lifestyles and a poor public realm in many outdoor spaces. The microclimatic conditions that have been impaired by the morphology of the built environment, reduced pedestrian comfort between buildings. Urban spaces depreciate for many months due to lack of pedestrians. The present thesis aimed to encourage what it calls walkability – the ability of a place to welcome people to walk– for longer periods every year. It focused on improving pedestrians’ overall thermal comfort and extending the distances that they could travel along their daily utilitarian journeys. Three main methods of fieldwork were applied to investigate the physical urban environment in two districts, namely Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) and The Greens. First, interviews were conducted with random passers-by along their everyday routes to the mosque, metro, office and school. These were conducted at different periods of...

In Abu Dhabi the emergence of new mosque forms comprise  a complex strategy that attempts to sustain cultural identity, sustainability and architectural form. The contemporary mosque of Fatima bint Mubarak in Abu Dhabi represents a new design approach that challenges new traditional forms in an attempt to advocate architecture that builds on sustainable designs. This study assesses the contemporary form of the mosque and the absorption of heat gain and loss levels in accordance with the required cooling loads, and thermal comfort levels. The aim is to integrate environmental and sustainable concepts in contemporary designs, therefore, two scenarios were tested; the first as existing with its glass curtain wall with a projecting upper floor to provide shade on three of it's facades, and a second scenario was based on thick stone walls with small windows. The second scenario was inspired by contemporary mosques that hinge on local/traditional adobe mosques in the United Arab Emirates.

A bioclimatic design approach is based upon incorporating the microclimatic requirements into the design to achieve higher comfort levels and lower energy consumption. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cooling effect of selected bioclimatic parameters on the outdoor air temperature of an open space. Several variables that attested earlier to enhance the outdoor environments were examined mutually to attain the impact that passive design has on the outdoor air temperature.
The computer simulation was found to be the most suitable tool for investigation according to the resources available. Three variables were tested initially, orientation, geometry and vegetation where the coolest parameter of each was incorporated into one scenario named the enhanced scenario. Three scenarios named the existing scenario representing a specific site conditions, the enhanced scenario combining the coolest parameters and a worst case scenario combining the warmest parameters, were compared together and evaluated.
The SW-NE orientation, the highest geometry of a height to width (H:W) ratio of 4, groups of trees and continuous grass revealed to be the coolest parameters incorporated in the enhanced scenario. The enhanced scenario was compared to the worst case scenario based upon an EW orientation, 0.5 H:W ratio and no vegetation which recorded the highest temperature levels. The results revealed a slight improvement in the outdoor air temperature due to the bioclimatic principles applied. The comparative results show cased a slighter improvement between the enhanced scenario and the existing scenario representing the site conditions of Dubai Knowledge Village due to the incorporation of a few principles only. The results of temperature and wind patterns recorded had contributed to understanding several outdoor behaviors which are useful for guiding an ecological design for small outdoor urban spaces.
One main conclusion was the existence of a threshold to the size of bioclimatic applications for them to achieve a significant improvement yet, an improvement was possible. However, the behavior of the outdoor parameters remains quite complex and unpredictable that requires further investigation.

In Dubai, the absurd dependence on air-conditioning in buildings and vehicles has led to sedentary lifestyles and a poor public realm in many outdoor spaces. The microclimatic conditions that have been impaired by the morphology of the built environment, reduced pedestrian comfort between buildings. Urban spaces depreciate for many months due to lack of pedestrians. The present thesis aimed to encourage what it calls walkability – the ability of a place to welcome people to walk– for longer periods every year. It focused on improving pedestrians’ overall thermal comfort and extending the distances that they could travel along their daily utilitarian journeys.
Three main methods of fieldwork were applied to investigate the physical urban environment in two districts, namely Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) and The Greens. First, interviews were conducted with random passers-by along their everyday routes to the mosque, metro, office and school. These were conducted at different periods of the year and times of the day and were meant to identify the thermal comfort limits at such periods. Second, subjective assessments, consisting of thermal sensations and thermal comfort votes, were collected from six subjects over several days in the form of short walks at different times of the year. These helped to assess the influence of the successive changes endured on the thermal sensations and overall comfort. Third, data loggers were installed in four different spaces over a period of one year to identify the influence of urban morphology on the microclimatic parameters (air and globe temperatures and relative humidity). Finally, ENVI-met microclimatic simulations were run to analyse the urban district JLT and identify the hot spots likely to inhibit comfort.
The findings of the fieldwork and simulation studies revealed the prospect for extending the distances that pedestrians tolerate walking outdoors, through improving their thermal sensation and comfort at certain areas along the journey described as the recovery conditions. The thesis proposes that allocating adequate shade and wind at frequent areas along the journey provides a psychological satisfaction and physical heat stress relief, which improves the overall comfort and encourages walkability. Proposed scenarios for such areas were modeled and tested using ENVI-met to show the improvements of the microclimate and comfort conditions that can be achieved at different times of the day and year.

The Urban Planning Council UPC in Abu Dhabi had created a long-term vision for the existing capital's evolution that incorporates many of the environmental concepts required to achieve a sustainable master plan. This paper represents a part of a research project that aims to cross three factors: 1) visibility of important buildings, open spaces, roads of the capital district, 2) buildings forms and arrangement and 3) the micro-climate, through a set of proposed guidelines, orientations for land use, transportation planning, urban forms, etc.
This paper focuses on the microclimatic analysis in the Emirati neighborhood using the ENVImet simulation tool through testing various scenarios. Findings revealed a potential to promote walkability within the proposed layout due to the presence of shade and air flow according to the street geometry and orientation. Recommendations are made for streets with high solar exposures to include shading elements such as deciduous trees to ensure seasonal variations.