The Influence of Greenery and Landscape Design on Solar Radiation and UHI Mitigation: A Case Study of a Boulevard in a Hot Climate

Sundus Shareef
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Sundus Shareef: Faculty of Engineering & IT, British University in Dubai (BUID), Dubai 345015, United Arab Emirates

World, 2022, vol. 3, issue 2, 1-31

Abstract: Greenery is one of the most influential factors in reducing the outdoor air temperature and enhancing the microclimate in hot areas. Previous studies focused on studying Urban Heat Islands (UHI) on a specific level; this research investigates the impact of greenery on different levels and three types of UHI, pedestrian, canopy, and boundary, to provide a holistic image of greenery impact on the atmosphere. Further, whereas vegetation impact has been addressed in previous studies, no valuable study has been found that investigates the impact of vegetation within the local climate conditions of the UAE. In this research, different types of greenery will be investigated to find their impact on outdoor microclimate parameters and the UHI within the hot climate conditions of the UAE. The case study of this research is a boulevard located in Dubai; the International Media Protection Zone’s main boulevard was selected to simulate different scenarios based on vegetation type and Leaf Area Density (LAD) using ENVI-met. The results showed that 12 m trees and the cylindrical tree are the most effective vegetation in reducing the air temperature; the variation between these scenarios and the existing case reaches 0.70 °C and 0.66 °C, respectively. The 10 m trees also have an influencing impact on reducing the air temperature by 0.50 °C. The same vegetation types showed a positive performance in absorbing shortwave radiation. The reduction in the reflected wave compared to the reference case was 36.07 W/m 2 and 31.45 W/m 2 for the 12 m and 10 m trees, respectively. Furthermore, the reduction in air temperature of a proposed scenario can reach 2.41 °C, 1.12 °C, and 1.08 °C for the investigated UHI levels. The results of this study will provide a canyon greenery prototype, with optimized performance in hot, humid climate areas.

Keywords: Urban Canopy Layer (UCL); Urban Boundary Layer (UBL); ENVI-met; tree simulation; Dubai; UAE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 G17 G18 L21 L22 L25 L26 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 R51 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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