Significance of Microclimatic Study in Urban Canyons Towards Ambient Urban Space Design

D.Kannamma; Dr. A. Meenatchi Sundaram

doi:10.15415/jotitt.2015.31007

Authors

D.Kannamma Department of architecture, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
Dr. A. Meenatchi Sundaram Department of architecture, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15415/jotitt.2015.31007

Keywords:

UHI, Urban Microclimate, Street Geometry, canyon, PET, Rayman Pro

Abstract

About 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and the fraction is growing. Thus the study of the urban boundary layer and urban climate is of great importance.Since urban centres of the world have immense growth of population, their quality requires a very careful screening for sustainable future, growth and development. The quality of outdoor urban spaces is more significant in tropical countries like India, since the activities are shared between indoor and outdoor. There are clear links between the climate of a settlement and its potential sustainability. Its opportunities for gathering energy, its need for energy conservation and its ability to dispose of airborne wastes are largely controlled by the climate it experiences. moreover, urban design decisions will create microclimates that either accentuate or moderate the properties of the background climate. Thus, there is a clear role for an applied urban climatology in the planning of sustainable settlements. hence there is a compulsive need for providing ambient environmental conditions outdoors, specific to the pedestrian users. The uhI (urban heat Island) phenomenon though is influenced by many factors, the role of urban design and professionals like architects, urban designers and planners cannot be ignored. Often they are neglected when urban design principles get executed onsite. Therefore there is a need for understanding the urban microclimate interaction with the urban geometry elements for deriving design solutions and guidelines for the future. Though urban microclimate is also dependent on multiple factors this paper focuses on its relation with various urban geometry elements specific to the urban streets. The unit chosen for the study is ‘urban canyon’. To understand the microclimatic variation various profiles of urban canyons were selected. The urban microclimatic discomfort is given by the term “microclimatic Stress” and the thermal index used for the measurement is PeT (Physiological equivalent temperature) and rayman Pro is used for its calculation. The study of the canyons concluded with findings that proved significant impact of street geometry elements on the microclimatic stress of urban outdoors.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] Alcoforado, Andrade H, Lopes A, Vasconcelos J, application of climatic guidelines to urban planning the example of Lisbon (Portugal), Landscape and Urban Planning 90 56-65, 2009.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.10.006
[2] Ali-Toudert F., Mayer H., 2005: Thermal comfort in an east-west oriented street canyon in Freiburg (Germany) under hot summer conditions. Theor. appl. climatol.
[3] Arnfield J, 2003, Two decades of urban climate research: a review of turbulence, exchange of energy and water, and the urban heat island, International journal of climatology, 23, 1– 26.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.859
[4] R.G. Barry, Diurnal effects on topoclimate on an equatorial mountain. arbeiten aus der Zentralanstalt für meteorologie und Geodynamik (Vienna), Publ. 32(72): 1-8.
[5] Chirag Deb, Ramachandraiah a / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Vol. 2(7), 2010, 2825-2828.
[6] Escourrou (G.), 1991. — Le climat et la ville.
[7] Evyatar, David Perlmutter and Terry Williamson,2011 urban microclimate - Designing Spaces Between Buildings.
[8] Givoni.B.(1989) urban Design in Different climates, WcaP-10, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva.
[9] Heath. E. T. (1966) The Hidden Dimension, Doubleday, New York.
[10] P. Hoppe, The physiological equivalent temperature - a universal index for the biometeorological assessment, Int J. Biometeorol., 43, 71-75,1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004840050118
[11] Howard.L (1818) The climate of London Deduced from meteorological Observations, W.Phillips. London.
[12] www.imd.gov.in - Indian Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India (IMD).
[13] Jauregui.e,1986, heat island development in Mexico city, atmospheric environment, 31 (22), 3821 – 3831. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(97)00136-2
[14] Kuttler W (2000) Stadtklima. In: Handbuch der umweltveränderungen und Ökotoxologie, Band 1B: atmosphäre (hrsg.) Guderian R, Springer Verlag, pp 420–470.
[15] H.e. Landsberg, The urban climate, Academic Press, New York (1981).
[16] Lin, T.-P. and A. Matzarakis, 2008: Tourism climate and thermal comfort in Sun-moon Lake, Taiwan. Int. J. Biometeorol. 52, 281-290. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00484-007-0122-7
[17] http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/tamilnadu.htm
[18] Matzarakis, a., de Freitas, c., Scott, D., 2004 (eds.): advances in tourism climatology. Ber. meteorol. Inst. univ. Freiburg Nr. 12.
[19] Matzarakis A, Rutz F, Mayer H, modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments - application of the Rayman model, Int. J. Biometeorol. 51: 323-34, 2007.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00484-006-0061-8
[20] Memon RA, Leung DYC, Liu ch. A review on the generation, determination and mitigation of urban heat Island. Journal of environmental Sciences 2008c; 20:120–8.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1001-0742(08)60019-4
[21] www.metoffice.gov.uk; www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/library/publications/factsheets.
[22] Mills G. (1997). an urban canopy-Layer climate model. In Theor. appl. climatol. 57,229-244.
[23] Mills, G. (2006) ‘Progress toward sustainable settlements: a role for urban climatology’, Theoretical and applied climatology, vol 84, pp69-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00863615
[24] Molina MJ, Molina LT. megacities and atmospheric pollution. J air Waste manages Assoc 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10473289.2004.10470936
[25] National Informatics centre (NIc), Government of India, Tiruchirappalli master Plan review (2009) http://www.trichy.tn.nic.in/distprof.htm
[26] Oke, T.R. (1987). Boundary layer climates. Cambridge: university Press.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00116120
[27] Oke TR, Johnson GT, Steyn DG, Watson ID. Simulation of surface urban heat islands under ideal conditions at night. Part 2. Diagnosis of causation. Bound- Lay meteorol 1991; 56:258–339.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00119211
[28] Rohinton Emmanuel, an urban approach to climate-sensitive Design strategies for the Tropics,2005, pg (21-23).
[29] Yencken, D. (1993) ‘Design in Australia’, quoted in competing by Design: The National Design review report (1995), National Design review Steering committee, The Australian Academy of Design, Sydney, pp 24. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203414644
[30] F. Yuan, comparison of impervious surface area and normalized difference vegetation index as indicators of surface urban heat island effects in Land sat imagery, m.e. Bauer / remote Sensing of environment 106 (2007) pp 375–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2006.09.003