Evaluation Strategies on the Thermal Environmental Effectiveness of Street Canyon Clusters: A Case Study of Harbin, China

Guanghao Li, Qingqing Cheng, Changhong Zhan () and Ken P. Yocom ()
Additional contact information
Guanghao Li: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150006, China
Qingqing Cheng: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150006, China
Changhong Zhan: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150006, China
Ken P. Yocom: Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-34

Abstract: Urban overheating significantly affects people’s physical and mental health. The addition of street trees is an essential, economical, and effective means by which to mitigate urban heat and optimize the overall thermal environment. Focusing on typical street canyon clusters in Harbin, China, landscape morphology was quantified by streetscape interface measurements (sky view factor, tree view factor, and building view factor). Through ENVI-met simulations, the correlation mechanism between streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment was evaluated, and optimization methods for assessing the thermal environment of urban streets were proposed. The results revealed: (1) The thermal environment optimization efficiency of general street canyon types was greatest when street tree spacing was 12 m. At present, the smaller spacing has not been simulated and may yield better thermal environment results. The average decrease in temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH) and mean radiant temperature (MRT) was 0.78%, 2.23%, and 30.20%, respectively. (2) Specific street canyon types should adopt precise control strategies of streetscape interface according to their types to achieve the optimal balance between thermal environment optimization and cost. (3) Streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment indexes show quadratic correlation characteristics, and are critical points for further investigation. The conclusions are more specific than previous research findings, which are of great significance for decreasing the urban heat island effect at the block scale, improving residents’ physical and mental health, and improving the urban environment quality.

Keywords: street canyon clusters; streetscape interface measurement; ENVI-met simulation; thermal optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13013/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13013/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13013-:d:939331

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().