Assessment of outdoor shading strategies to improve outdoor thermal comfort in school courtyards in hot and arid climates

Schools in hot arid climate depend on courtyard to encourage students' for social activity. In order to improve Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC), applying passive mitigation strategies in the courtyard is critical issue. This paper aims to improve students' thermal comfort in school courtyards throughout the study of a public school with an E-shaped style in New Assiut City. Hence, different shading strategies (shading with different heights, vegetation, and hybrid) are simulated by using ENVI-met model v 5.0.0 to improve OTC for students in school courtyards. Firstly, monitoring was conducted inside outer courtyards. Then nine scenarios of passive strategies were implemented inside two courtyards with a ratio H/W = 0.4 and 0.7. After that, Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) was used to compare different scenarios. The results found, by applying hybrid orthogonal and diagonal staggered shading with trees in wide canyons, significant reductions of PET values reached 18.5C and 18.6C respectively. In addition, the shading at height= 4 m hybrid with trees achieves the best OTC improvement in the school courtyards. Thus, PET values were located in comfortable and slightly warm ranges for wide courtyard with H/W ratio = 0.4, and this result is more sufficient than in deep canyon with H/W = 0.7. Hence, the study provides information for architects and planners to integrate hybrid scenarios of staggered shading and trees whether in the current schools or in the early design stages for them to reduce heat stress and improve students' thermal comfort.

Automated summary

This study aims to improve students' thermal comfort in school courtyards through the application of different shading strategies (including shading with different heights, vegetation, and hybrid shading). The results show that applying hybrid shading with trees in wide courtyards can significantly reduce outdoor temperatures. This study provides architects and planners with information on how to reduce heat stress and improve students' thermal comfort.