outdoor microclimate

Outdoor comfort is gaining attention in the design of our cities to face the current context of rising temperatures. Although simulation is required to inform the early design stage of projects considering outdoor space and strategies to improve their thermal performance, different tool options must be compared through monitoring to determine the accuracy of their modeling. This study analyses the thermal comfort benefits of the installation of a shading device in a courtyard in the Mediterranean climate. In the study, two simulation workflows were analyzed, one using ENVI-met software and the other using the Ladybug Tools, to evaluate their performance. Air temperature monitoring data were used to validate and calibrate the simulations. Then, both were used to compute the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) to evaluate comfort. The results show that the simulation reproduced an air temperature reduction when the shading was installed, but this was not as high as the monitoring r...

It is becoming increasingly crucial to develop methods and strategies to assess building performance under the changing climate and to yield a more sustainable and resilient design. However, the outputs of climate models have a coarse spatial and temporal resolution and cannot be used directly in building energy simulation tools. This paper reviews methods to develop fine spatial and temporal weather files that incorporate climate emissions scenarios by means of downscaling. An overview of the climate change impact on building energy performance is given, and potential adaptation and mitigation factors in response to the changing climate in the building sector are presented. Also, methods to reflect, propagate, and partition main sources of uncertainties in both weather files and buildings are summarized, and a sample approach to propagate the uncertainties is demonstrated.

It is becoming increasingly crucial to develop methods and strategies to assess building performance under the changing climate and to yield a more sustainable and resilient design. However, the outputs of climate models have a coarse spatial and temporal resolution and cannot be used directly in building energy simulation tools. This paper reviews methods to develop fine spatial and temporal weather files that incorporate climate emissions scenarios by means of downscaling. An overview of the climate change impact on building energy performance is given, and potential adaptation and mitigation factors in response to the changing climate in the building sector are presented. Also, methods to reflect, propagate, and partition main sources of uncertainties in both weather files and buildings are summarized, and a sample approach to propagate the uncertainties is demonstrated.

Human’s general perception of an open space is influenced by architectonical, psychological but also physical factors. For this reason, it is important to consider environmental comfort as a crucial element when it comes to designing an urban outdoor space [1]. In this paper, we consider the following research questions: in a Mediterranean climate, is it possible to design an outdoor urban space that is thermally comfortable for a longer time-span, usable just as much as an indoor space? Our purpose is to identify the primary influencing factors that designers can modify in a built environment, and to provide guidelines to better understand the effect of alternative parameter settings on the microclimate. To this end, we propose an innovative two-phases design methodology: first, we use simulation to gather data on thermal comfort for selected configurations of parameters; next, we use these data to train a Machine Learning algorithm. The learned model (a decision tree) is used to s...

The regenerative approach to design goes beyond limiting the environmental impact of the built environment and towards the enrichment of the ecosystem, adaptation to climate change, and the improvement of human health. This concept is being applied to buildings through new standards such as the Living Building Challenge, yet examples of implementation of regenerative design at the urban scale are rare. While this is a promising direction for sustainable design, in theory new metrics, design tools and workflows need to be developed to translate regenerative design concepts into practice effectively. Among other factors, barriers to implementation remain rooted in the shortcomings of existing urban simulation tools to evaluate a wide range of performance metrics simultaneously. This paper thus proposes a prototype workflow to evaluate regenerative performance using existing evaluation tools in a single digital workflow. A series of existing and customised plugins, most of which are already in use and open source, were integrated into a multi-parametric workflow based on the Grasshopper visual programming tool. The workflow was tested on Malaga as a case study and incorporated key performance indicators related to outdoor human thermal comfort, biophilia, daylight performance, and energy use and production, based on data exchange and synergies across the different tools. These indicators were evaluated for present and future climate scenarios obtained from a weather generator. This paper demonstrates the potential of this workflow to receive visual feedback on various aspects of regenerative urban design, thus enabling designers to more effectively pursue an evidence-based urban design process.

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.

A B S T R A C T Extensive literature exists on the effects and risks on environmental products, and in particular on the vegetation in archaeological areas; vegetal framework, as is known, changes the microclimate conditions and may affect the conservation of an archaeological site. The objective is to verify the effects of the presence of trees on the outdoor microclimate in these areas to determine and assess the conservation strategies and outdoor comfort conditions. Software modelling is carried out with ENVI-MET V4, which allows the analysis of micro-climatic conditions of the area and the context of interactions with the vegetation. The research described in this article relates to the remains of which are surrounded by a plain of woodlands. The simulations have allowed us to understand the real influence of trees on conservation ruins, also defining the perceived well-being benefits for visitors. Result simulation about climate condition in study area show that distribution of air temperature varies depending on the presence of trees and trees species, also mean radiant temperature, while the value of Relative Humidity depend on both tree evopotranspiration and weather-climatic conditions of the season.