Fluid Dynamics Modeling to Assess the Impact of Urban Geometry on Urban Microclimate

Le résumé fourni par la source

More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and is vulnerable to climate change. The enhancement of the urban heat island (UHI) is a major concern nowadays. The paradigm shift in the definition of UHI from the elevation in the temperature between urban, and rural areas to the thermal differentiation between local climate zones (LCZ) brings forth the potential to incorporate various modeling tools and simulations in urban microclimate studies. Although the microclimate models have been extensively studied in the context of modifying urban microclimate, they have been less explored and validated in the humid tropical, monsoon-dominated climate. The aim of this study is to investigate the responsiveness of a three-dimensional (3D) microclimate model, ENVI-met, to evaluate the impact of urban geometry on the urban thermal environment in the urban region of Kochi, a tropical coastal city on the southwest coast of India. Filed measurements were carried out at two LCZ zones in the study area. Two sets of simulations were also carried out using the area input file attributes of the compact midrise zone (CMR) and the openset midrise zone (OMR) in LCZ classification. The results of the simulation reveal that the models adequately captured the diurnal variations of temperature in the CMR and OMR zones during 218 simulation and observation. The findings simulation also emphasizes that urban geometry has a significant impact on the modification of UHI intensity.

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