Integrating Microclimate into Landscape Architecture for Outdoor Thermal Comfort: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Global climate change and urban heat island intensification are making many cities dangerously hot during heat waves and uncomfortably hot much of the time. Research has identified ways that urban environments can be designed to reduce the heat, but much of the information is too technical or has not been interpreted or communicated so as to be available to landscape architects. This study identifies ways that landscape architecture researchers have applied microclimate information in design to proactively create more thermally comfortable outdoor environments. A systematic review that assessed the growing recognition of microclimatic factors in design revealed four main approaches: principles and guidelines, strategies, mapping, and evaluation. The advantages and limitations of each have been noted, and a diagram has been developed that matches each approach with specific steps in the landscape architectural design process. The study also identified four areas where microclimate has potential for use in landscape architecture but that are currently not being very actively studied: modeling and visualization, education, policy, and ideation. Microclimatic design has the potential to enhance the health and well-being of the public through the design of thermally comfortable outdoor environments.

[Retracted] Quantitative Evaluation of Plant and Modern Urban Landscape Spatial Scale Based on Multiscale Convolutional Neural Network

“…en, the output subsampling layer data of the last layer is imported into the fully connected layer. Finally, the output data of the fully connected layer is imported into the softmax classifier to obtain the final classification result [25].…”

Characteristics, Progress and Trends of Urban Microclimate Research: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

“…Climate risks have and will continue to affect national security, economic security, human health, infrastructure, and ecosystem stability [1]. The Global Risks Report 2022, published by the World Economic Forum, lists climate change as one of the ten most pressing global risks [2].…”

Microclimatic Landscape Architecture: From Theory to Application

“…The approaches about applying microclimates into landscape architecture have been widely reported in the literature. A review of the related literature from 1995 to 2020 was conducted to categorize these methods into four categories [23]. The keywords in the reviewed article, as well as the understanding of the article, aided in the identification of these four types, as shown below:…”

“…It can be divided into three approaches: directly creating maps using microclimatic software (such as ENVI-met software, Rayman software, etc. ), mapping using non-software methods (such as photographic and video techniques), and combining maps obtained in various ways to create new maps using ArcGIS software [23].…”

“…These methods all play their respective roles at various stages of design. Mapping dominates the process of site inventory and analysis, principles and guidelines are primarily used in design development, strategies are primarily used in detail design, and evaluation is focused on design assessment [23].…”