Evaluation and improvement of outdoor thermal comfort in urban areas on extreme temperature days: Applications of automatic algorithms

The objective of this paper is to present and apply automatic algorithms to evaluate and improve non-stationary outdoor thermal comfort in urban areas. The effects of urban planning on thermal sensations are analyzed in three linear urban street designs and in non-linear arrangement of the streets with no vegetation in Novi Sad, Serbia. A temporal analysis is performed for extreme hot and cold days using universal thermal climate index (UTCI) simulations in the Grasshopper program. In future linear street design, the frequencies of the greatest thermal stress situations substantially decrease on hot summer days and slightly increase on cold winter days. Past, present, and future urban designs of linear street are compared, and the largest UTCI decreases are noted at 10, 17 and 18 UTC on hot summer days at 11 UTC on cold winter days. Future planed and proposed urban design of linear and non-linear streets is compared and the largest UTCI decreases are noted at 10 UTC on summer day and increases at 11 UTC in winter day. The building height and density increases in the future street design will modify the thermal environment. The proposed automatic algorithms are applicable for the analysis of human thermal comfort in various urban designs and climates. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.