Outdoor thermal comfort autonomy: Performance metrics for climate-conscious urban design
Name
AcceptedManuscript_BAE_2019_OTCA.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.39 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
053833eea20a212e26715c66a48e1ca6
Author(s)
Norford, Leslie Keith
Date Issued
May 2019
Journal
Building and environment
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Nazarian, Negin, Juan A. Acero and Leslie Norford. “Outdoor thermal comfort autonomy: Performance metrics for climate-conscious urban design.” Building and environment, 155, (May 2019): 145-160 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Thermal comfort in the built environment is a crucial factor impacting health, well-being, and productivity of urban dwellers. Accordingly, comprehensive analyses are needed to ensure that acceptable criteria of thermal comfort are defined and met in urban environments. The main objective of this study is to define such performance metrics and quality measures of outdoor thermal comfort (OTC), aiming to inform climate-conscious urban design. This article first discusses the motivations for introducing comprehensive thermal comfort metrics, addressing the shortcomings of conventional OTC evaluations that neglect the temporal or spatial variability of OTC. It then introduces four performance metrics, which collectively inform urban planners and designers on the performance of outdoor space with regards to thermal comfort. These metrics build upon the concept of “autonomy” previously introduced for indoor spaces and are extended to include the unique characteristics of outdoor thermal comfort. Second, we discuss the capability of these metrics given the limitations of modeling tools available for urban microclimate analysis, and evaluate the critical factors for an accurate evaluation of Outdoor Thermal Comfort Autonomy (OTCA). We observe that the spatial distribution of airflow at the pedestrian height is critical for OTCA calculation, while the consideration of realistic surface heating depends on the urban density. Lastly, we present an example of employing weather clustering methods such that OTC performance metrics are achieved on an annual basis in a comprehensive yet efficient way. By discussing the capability and the limitations of these metrics we aim to promote climate-conscious design using metrics that are tangible and accessible to non-simulationexperts.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.03.028
