Water body effect on microclimate in summertime: A case study from Pécs

Abstract

The relationship between water body (fountains) scale and climate parameters like wind speed, air temperature, relative humidity, as well as thermal comfort index was modeled and analyzed via Envi-met code. Taking the water impact and factors analysis as a research object, the factors mainly discussed in this research are square area to water-body area ratio and the location of the water element. However, the computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted on the following scenarios: 3% (original base case), 6%, and 9% of the total square's area, then the outputs of the two simulation results were compared to the original base case. The results revealed that water scale has a slight effect on the micro-climate of the built environment in the summertime in moderately warm-wet climate zone. However, it is beneficial to adjust temperature and humidity in public spaces of central European cities. Nonetheless, the main aim of this paper is to quantitatively investigate the impact of the water bodies on the urban weather parameters and human thermal comfort under the influence of different scale ratios in Pecs-Hungary.

Analyzing the Effect of Water Body on the Thermal Environment and Comfort at Indoor and Outdoor Spaces in Tropical University Campus

“…Syafii et al, [11] observed on average, 1.6 °C cooler pedestrian environment around the pond area. The experiment of Albdour and Baranyai [13] found the air temperature 0.6-1.5 K lower near the water element than the surrounding built-up area. All these studies tried to evaluate the comfort condition considering merely the air temperature as a key element of urban environment.…”

“…Their results suggest that both centralized and scattered water bodies can improve the microclimate of the residential district. Mohammad S. Albdour and Balint Baranyai [13] conducted a study to measure the effect of water features on the microclimate in Pecs, Hungary. Their results showed that water elements played a role in reducing air temperature and mean radiant temperature, while a slight effect on Predicted Mean Vote (PMV).…”

A Systematic Review of Outdoor Thermal Comfort Studies for the Urban (Re)Design of City Squares

“…Studies with alternative vegetation and water redesign scenarios on urban squares with mitigation measure solutions were assessed through different scenario simulations using specific software tools (ENVI-met, SOLWEIG) for squares in Thessaloniki, Greece [78]; in Padua, Italy [79,80]; in Sétif, Algeria [81]; in Porto, Portugal [82]; in Achen, Germany [83]; in Cesena, Italy [84]; in Munich, Germany [85]; in Pécs, Hungary [86]; in Athens, Greece [87]; in Zurich, Switzerland [88]; in Guelma, Algeria [89]; in Mendoza, Argentina [90]; in Rome, Italy [91]; in Milan, Italy [92]; in Ishikawa, Japan [18]; and in Dalian, China [93].…”

A Discussion on the Application of Terminology for Urban Soil Sealing Mitigation Practices

“…Numerous recent studies claim that green infrastructures are the most effective practices to promote cooling through shading, airflow orientation, precipitation interception, and evapotranspiration [ 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 ]. The combination of green infrastructure with blue infrastructure (water bodies) can cool the overlying and adjacent air through evaporation and convection [ 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 ]. As has recently been proven in China, PM2.5 pollution concentration decreases as environmental greenness increases, a phenomenon that was observed across different land cover types and cities [ 102 ].…”