The Impact of Street Canyon Geometry on Microclimate and Outdoor Thermal Comfort - The Case of "Damac Hills 2" Community
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Date
2022-03
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Although urban designers and planners have been trying to provide liveable, walkable and healthy neighbourhoods, outdoor thermal condition has been a challenging issue for them as cities and communities are heating up nowadays due to UHI and global warming, making outdoor daily activities challenging especially in hot climate countries. Researchers have been investigating different strategies to enhance microclimate using street canyon geometry and many researches have been conducted about applying these strategies in different parts of the world.
This dissertation aims to investigate the impact of street canyon ratio and street canyon orientation on microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort to find the ideal aspect ratio and orientation in terms of enhancing wind velocity, solar radiation and thermal comfort for local streets in residential communities that are located in Dubai.
In order to achieve this goal, computer simulation models using Ladybug and Eddy3D plugins were created and applied for the case study and another 8 scenarios were proposed which include different street orientations and canyon ratios. Furthermore, field measurements were conducted to validate the created simulation models’ results.
The research has achieved several results including the best aspect ratio and orientation among the proposed scenarios in terms of MRT and wind velocity. Additionally, the street with a high canyon ratio oriented close to the north was found to experience the lowest average MRT while the street which was oriented in parallel to the wind direction with a high aspect ratio experienced the highest maximum wind velocity. The results of this research will help urban planners and designers to design thermally comfort communities, as well as develop street design guidelines.
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Keywords
street canyon geometry, microclimate, United Arab Emirates (UAE), urban designers, global warming, hot climate countries, outdoor thermal comfort, solar radiation