Abstract:
Comfortable urban environments attract people to public spaces.
Urban designers have a great responsibility of creating thermally
acceptable outdoors enhancing walkability and livability. Since intense
urbanization has a harmful effect on OTC, experts tend to find strategies
for urban discomfort, especially in tropics. However, transforming the
current urban design into a climatic responsive design is challenging.
Therefore, this paper reviews the influence of urban design
interventions on OTC and concludes with the best strategies. The
methodology includes two stages; bibliometric search and
comprehensive content analysis which is limited to studies with physical
and physiological assessments. Four components have been identified
affecting OTC namely; urban surfaces, morphology, green, and blue
infrastructure. Urban morphology is the most determinant component
affecting OTC while green infrastructure is the most efficient method of
improving comfort. Deeper canyons and compacted urban forms are
more comfortable than shallow and aspersed forms. Hard surface
coverage, urban form, prevailing wind conditions, morphological
characteristics of tree species, and scale of open space available
should be considered in vegetation inclusion. Since the material albedo
and orientations of surfaces affect ambient air temperature increase, a
high percentage of natural or artificial shading should be provided to
adjacent hard surfaces and it helps to improve OTC irrespective of the
surface material type. As a strategy, water bodies must be carefully
considered in warm-humid climates and compacted urban areas.
However, local climate, functionality, feasibility, and user perceptions
must be considered and context-specific investigations are
recommended using reliable methods such as CFD modeling prior to
decision making.
