Based upon the case of Lisbon, this article examined the in-situ effects of vegetation upon pedestrian thermal comfort levels. Focussing specifically upon the historic quarter that often witnesses the highest T amb values and Urban Heat Island (UHI) intensities during the summer, the most common urban canyon cases (UCCs) were modelled, along with one of the most commonly used vegetative semi-deciduous species found in the city, Tipuana tipu. Based upon a reference point (RP) system, the assessments were undertaken through the use of a new version of the SkyHelios model, local obtained G rad values, and the modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) index calculated through the human-biometeorological model RayMan. The study identified the in-situ thermo-physiological influences of Tipuana tipu during different periods of the year: (1) during the summer, which revealed considerable reductions of PET/mPET of up to 15.6 • C/11.6 • C during a very hot day (where daily maximum T amb surpassed 35 • C); and (2) during the winter, which revealed the risks of oversharing as a result of the species keeping its foliage during the winter with reductions of PET/mPET of up to 2.7 • C/2.6 • C. Furthermore, the study utilised the climate tourism/transfer information scheme (CTIS) to categorise and facilitate the interpretation of the results.
Urban public space is extraordinarily adaptable under a pattern of relatively stable changes. However, when facing unprecedented and potentially extreme climatic changes, public spaces may not have the same adaptation capacity. In this context, planned adaptation gains strength against "business as usual". While public spaces are among the most vulnerable areas to climatic hazards, they entail relevant characteristics for adaptation efforts. As such, public space design can lead to effective adaptation undertakings, explicitly influencing urban design practices as we know them. Amongst its different intrinsic roles and benefits, such as being a civic common gathering place of social and economic exchanges, public space may have found an enhanced protagonism under the climate change adaptation perspective. In light of the conducted empirical analysis, which gathered existing examples of public spaces with flood adaptation purposes, specific public space potentialities for the application of flood adaptation measures are here identified and characterized. Overall, this research questions the specific social potentiality of public space adaptation in the processes of vulnerability tackling, namely considering the need of alternatives in current flood management practices. Through literature review and case study analysis, it is here argued that: people and communities can be perceived as more than susceptible targets and rather be professed as active agents in the process of managing urban vulnerability; that climate change literacy, through the design of a public space, may endorse an increased common need for action and the pursuit of suitable solutions; and that local know-how and locally-driven design can be considered as a service with added value for adaptation endeavors.
Assuming the importance of public space design in the implementation of effective adaptation action towards urban flooding, this paper identifies and systematizes a wide range of flood adaptation measures pertinent to the design of public spaces. It presents findings from both a systematic literature review and an empirical analysis retrieved from concrete public space design precedents. It concludes with the presentation of a conceptual framework that organizes the identified measures in accordance to their main, and secondary, infrastructural strategies. The intention behind the disclosed framework is to aid a multitude of professionals during the initial exploratory phases of public space projects that incorporate flooding adaptation capacities.
Divided by interdisciplinary realms of application, both climate change and urbanism are ultimately bound together by cause-and-effect in our ever mutable cities. Although suggested that cities are changing faster than Mankind have been able to adjust out thinking, the yearly dissemination scientific data on climatic change is continually improving the efficiency of urbanism to tackle new looming paradigms. Respectively, it is considered that urbanism encounters its greatest opportunities in this uncertain 'third modernity', where flexible approaches such as 'what if?' scenarios allow urbanism to continuously uphold the ever evolving identity and continuum within eventful horizons. This collaboration between these two interrelating realms of contemporary practice is currently being applied upon the case of Lisbon, where regional and local climate change scenarios are assessed in terms of their potential territorial impacts. This originated the opportunity to evaluate how the city components and functioning within its waterfronts shall be affected by climate change. Resultantly, and embedded within its niche, urbanism presents a new creative laboratory where flexible and innovative urban adaptation strategies can be developed to counter-act the impending impacts upon Lisbon within the XXI century.
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