Enhancing Thermal Comfort in Urban Communities with Urban Configurations and Green Coverage: A Case Study of Dubai Sustainable City
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Date
2017-10
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Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
In response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the United Arab
Emirates’ long-term vision for cities that provide successful and comfortable sustainable living,
it is essential to study and explore strategies that enhance outdoor thermal comfort and indoor
energy consumption that meets environmental, social and economic sustainability goals. The
case study for this research, the Dubai Sustainable City residential cluster, which is the first
development of its type and which complies with Dubai’s green building code, was chosen
because it contains five clusters typical in their design and content.
The software simulation analysis method was used to conduct the research, which
involved using ENVI-met to build a virtual model representing the base existing case after
collecting weather data from a site visit on 23 June and from records held by the National
Centre of Meteorology. This model was used to evaluate the thermal behaviour of outdoor
urban spaces in four phases. In the fifth phase, indoor energy was studied through simulation
by using Design Builder to create a virtual model of the architectural units that were the subject
of the study.
The findings indicate that the layout orientation of the master plan has a significant
effect on air temperature, wind speed and wind distribution within the site. Wind speed and
distribution further affect the relative humidity of outdoor areas and influence user satisfaction.
Moreover, courtyard design impacts air distribution and air temperature, which is connected to
predicted mean vote values, and green coverage percentage in the courtyard impacts
microclimate variables, as it reduces air temperature by increasing relative humidity to a
moderate level. Finally, all previous enhancements applied to the outdoor thermal comfort
variable affects the indoor total energy consumption, as it reduces the energy load needed to
mitigate the outdoor environment.
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Keywords
energy consumption, thermal comfort, urban communities, urban configurations, green coverage, sustainable city, United Arab Emirates (UAE)