The Impact of Urban Design Descriptors on Outdoor Thermal Environment: A Literature Review

Pingying Lin, Zhonghua Gou, Stephen Siu-Yu Lau and Hao Qin
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Pingying Lin: Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Zhonghua Gou: Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia
Stephen Siu-Yu Lau: Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Hao Qin: Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: This paper presents a literature review on urban design indicators addressing the impact of urban geometry and vegetation on the outdoor thermal environment at the pedestrian level, as urban geometry and vegetation have been regarded as the most influential urban design factors that affect outdoor microclimate. The thermal balance concept is first introduced to elaborate how each component of energy fluxes is affected by the urban built environment, which helps to explore the underlying thermophysical mechanisms of how urban design modifies the outdoor thermal environment. The literature on numerous urban design descriptors addressing urban geometric characteristics is categorized into five groups in this paper according to the design features that the parameters entail, including land use intensity, building form, canyon geometry, space enclosure and descriptive characteristics. The literature on urban vegetation descriptors is reviewed together, followed by the combined effect of urban geometry and vegetation. This paper identifies a series of important urban design parameters and shows that the impact of design parameters on thermal environment varies with time, season, local climate and urban contexts. Contradictory impacts often occur between daytime and nighttime, or different seasons, which requests trade-offs to be achieved when proposing design strategies.

Keywords: outdoor thermal environment; urban microclimate; urban heat island (UHI); urban geometry; vegetation; urban design; thermal balance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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