Applications of Automatic Algorithms for Improvement of Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Cities

Abstract

© 2017 The Authors. There is a strong need for user-friendly software among urban planners and climatologists in order to develop climatologically conscious urban designs. In this paper we present possibilities (i.e. software packages) for the improvement of outdoor thermal comfort in built urban environments using Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) calculations. For this purpose, automatic algorithms for changing body locations, buildings heights and trees locations in street parking lot areas were developed and applied in the Grasshopper software. The applicability of the algorithms was tested in real-world street parking lot in a Central European city as an example. Temporal analyses were performed during heat wave period in 2015. Outdoor thermal comfort was improved at approximately 66% of body locations during heat wave period. Usage of automatic algorithms in appropriate software showed to be a valuable contribution for urban planning strategies aimed at counterattacking the adverse effects of urban climate and expected climate change (i.e. temperature rise) in cities.