Thermal perception of outdoor urban spaces in the hot arid region of Cairo, Egypt

Elnabawi, Mohamed H.; Hamza, Neveen; Dudek, Steven

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2016.02.005

Cited by 115 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This association offers important evidence of human adaptation to the thermal environment (Nikolopoulou et al, 2001). Numerous single-city studies have found seasonal differences in neutral temperature, which validated the adaptation effect on a local scale (Hwang et al, 2010;Elnabawi et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2016;Salata et al, 2016;Tseliou et al, 2017). However, it remains unknown whether this adaptation phenomenon has a global pattern among people living in different geographical and climatic regions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 71%

“…It refers to sensitivity of human thermal sensation to temperature change. Some studies have suggested that human thermal sensitivity can change with seasonality (Elnabawi et al, 2016;Li et al, 2016;Tseliou et al, 2017). For example, the winter thermal sensitivity for people in Guangzhou, China, was found to be 0.18 TSV/ C physiological equivalent temperature (PET), meaning that the mean TSV will increase by one for a 5.6 C change in PET (Li et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of them conducted seasonal analysis and provided more than one set of neutral temperature and thermal sensitivity data. The 19 studies covered nine types in the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, ranging from tropical (Krüger et al, 2017;Ndetto and Matzarakis, 2017), subtropical (Li et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2016) and to dry (Yahia and Johansson, 2013;Elnabawi et al, 2016). The 19 studies covered nine types in the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, ranging from tropical (Krüger et al, 2017;Ndetto and Matzarakis, 2017), subtropical (Li et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2016) and to dry (Yahia and Johansson, 2013;Elnabawi et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These levels and ranges are useful and convenient indicators of people's thermal perceptions and requirements. Determining these benchmarks for the local population is often the main purpose of many outdoor thermal comfort studies Elnabawi et al, 2016;Salata et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2017). Among the four benchmarks, neutral temperature is the most commonly reported (Johansson et al, 2014;Cheung and Jim, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Global pattern of human thermal adaptation and limit of thermal neutrality: Systematic analysis of outdoor neutral temperature

Cheung

Jim

2018

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Neutral temperature is the temperature at which people feel neither cool nor warm. Previous regional studies have found that neutral temperature can change with season, which can be attributed to the psychological adaptation effect of people. However, few studies have examined whether the adaptation pattern can be observed across wide geographical and climatic regions. In some cases, outdoor comfort surveys cannot determine neutral temperatures because thermal sensation votes obtained do not reach neutrality. It reflects that thermal adaptation has a temperature limit, and thermal neutrality can hardly be achieved outside the limit. This study aims to establish linear models between neutral temperature and background temperature (survey‐period and climate normal) using neutral temperature data reported in international studies. The limit of thermal neutrality will also be determined in the best‐fit model. The neutral temperature data in 19 empirical outdoor thermal comfort studies published between 2009 and 2017 were used in the linear regression models. Survey‐period mean air temperature was found to be the best predictor of neutral temperature (R2 = 0.539, p = 0.007). The effect of long‐term acclimatization may be less important than it was previously thought because survey‐period temperature can explain over a half of the variability in neutral temperature. The temperature limit of thermal neutrality was defined by the lowest and the highest neutral temperatures in the best‐fit model; the limit was between 12.9 and 32.3 °C in air temperature. The findings indicate that the adaptation effect has a worldwide pattern as neutral temperature always lies closely to background air temperature.

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confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global pattern of human thermal adaptation and limit of thermal neutrality: Systematic analysis of outdoor neutral temperature

Cheung

Jim

2018

Intl Journal of Climatology

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“…Outdoor spaces are considered vital constituents of urban environments because they can host entertainment activities that are fundamental to the character of a city and the quality of life of city residents (Chen & Ng, 2012). In particular, outdoor human comfort is extremely important in city planning because it can not only improve the physical and mental health of city residents, but also can help reduce power consumption in residential buildings (Amindeldar, Heidari, & Khalili, 2017;Chatzidimitriou & Yannas, 2016;Elnabawi, Hamza, & Dudek, 2016;Kong et al, 2017;Li, Huang, Wu, & Xu, 2018). Actually, an enjoyable outdoor thermal comfort can encourage city residents to spend more time in outdoor spaces (Chen & Ng, 2012;Du, Mak, Huang, & Niu, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving pedestrian level low wind velocity environment in high-density cities: A general framework and case study

Mak

2018

Sustainable Cities and Society

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A B S T R A C TAn acceptable pedestrian level wind environment is essential to maintain an enjoyable outdoor space for city residents. Low wind velocity environment can lead to uncomfortable outdoor thermal experience in hot and humid summer, and it is unable to remove the pollutants out of city canyons. However, the average wind velocity at pedestrian level is significantly lowered by closely spaced tall buildings in modern megacities. To improve the low wind velocity environment at pedestrian level in high-density cities, a general framework and detailed guidelines are needed. This study is the first time to develop such a framework, and provide detailed guidelines for improving pedestrian level low wind velocity environment in high-density cities. Additionally, a detailed review and summarisation of evaluation criteria and improvement measures are presented in this paper, which provide additional options for urban planners. To investigate the performance of the framework, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus was utilised as a case study. Results showed that pedestrian level wind comfort was greatly improved with the developed framework. The outcomes of this study can assist city planners to improve the low wind velocity environment, and can help policy makers to establish sustainable urban planning policies.

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Thermal sensation and climate: a comparison of UTCI and PET thresholds in different climates

Pantavou

Lykoudis²,

Nikolopoulou

et al. 2018

Int J Biometeorol

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The influence of physiological acclimatization and psychological adaptation on thermal perception is well documented and has revealed the importance of thermal experience and expectation in the evaluation of environmental stimuli. Seasonal patterns of thermal perception have been studied, and calibrated thermal indices' scales have been proposed to obtain meaningful interpretations of thermal sensation indices in different climate regions. The current work attempts to quantify the contribution of climate to the long-term thermal adaptation by examining the relationship between climate normal annual air temperature (1971-2000) and such climate-calibrated thermal indices' assessment scales. The thermal sensation ranges of two thermal indices, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and the Physiological Equivalent Temperature Index (PET), were calibrated for three warm temperate climate contexts (Cfa, Cfb, Csa), against the subjective evaluation of the thermal environment indicated by interviewees during field surveys conducted at seven European cities: Athens (GR), Thessaloniki (GR), Milan (IT), Fribourg (CH), Kassel (DE), Cambridge (UK), and Sheffield (UK), under the same research protocol. Then, calibrated scales for other climate contexts were added from the literature, and the relationship between the respective scales' thresholds and climate normal annual air temperature was examined. To maintain the maximum possible comparability, three methods were applied for the calibration, namely linear, ordinal, and probit regression. The results indicated that the calibrated UTCI and PET thresholds increase with the climate normal annual air temperature of the survey city. To investigate further climates, we also included in the analysis results of previous studies presenting only thresholds for neutral thermal sensation. The average increase of the respective thresholds in the case of neutral thermal sensation was about 0.6 °C for each 1 °C increase of the normal annual air temperature for both indices, statistically significant only for PET though.

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Thermal perception of outdoor urban spaces in the hot arid region of Cairo, Egypt

Cited by 115 publications

References 36 publications

Global pattern of human thermal adaptation and limit of thermal neutrality: Systematic analysis of outdoor neutral temperature

Global pattern of human thermal adaptation and limit of thermal neutrality: Systematic analysis of outdoor neutral temperature

Improving pedestrian level low wind velocity environment in high-density cities: A general framework and case study

Thermal sensation and climate: a comparison of UTCI and PET thresholds in different climates

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