The Influence of Urban Street Characteristics on Pedestrian Heat Comfort Levels in Philadelphia

This article describes relationships between selected physical characteristics of urban streets and pedestrian-level heat. It also identifies conditions that are particularly vulnerable to the summer heat. Field measurements of ambient temperatures 1 m above the ground were collected over sidewalks, green spaces, and parking lots in high density commercial and residential areas. Panel autoregression (PAR) analysis was then used to assess significant contributors, and prediction equations were developed. These explained over 90% of the total observed variation. The prediction equations were then used with a geographic information system (GIS) to create a cartographic map of hot and cool areas for a particular study site. The results indicate that planting trees can reduce ground ambient temperatures. Moreover, a cartographic map is effective tool for identifying heat vulnerable areas. This study offers a more comprehensive spatial scale analysis and most explicit prediction map than other studies to date

Elderly and urban services. A GIS support tool to measure pedestrian accessibility

In all the countries of the industrialized West and in many developing countries, the population aging index is gradually increasing and it is expected that in 2050 one in five people in the world will be over 70 years old and that 64 countries will have a population older than 30% of the entire population. The relationship between the organization of the pedestrian network and the location and distribution of urban activities are important elements for improving accessibility to urban places and services of interest to the elderly. Many scholars are engaged in research aimed at improving the characteristics of the pedestrian network and the characteristics of the built environment that influence the "walkability" at the neighbourhood scale or improving the accessibility in reaching a specific urban service through the transport networks of transport. In this perspective, the purpose of the thesis work is the development of a decision support tool in a GIS environment to classify urban areas according to the levels of pedestrian accessibility for the elderly to urban services. Accessibility levels are defined through the measurement of accessibility built starting from the weight of each characteristic of the pedestrian network (identified through the analysis of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)), from the behaviour of the elderly especially in terms of speed and time distance for the different age groups of the elderly population. The application of the thesis work took place in two territorial contexts: Naples, Italy and Aberdeen, Scotland. The results obtained provide suggestions to local decision makers in the choice of interventions and their priorities to be implemented at the neighbourhood scale to improve the quality of life of the elderly and on the other provide a technical-operational contribution to measure pedestrian accessibility to urban services in other territorial contexts in the GIS environment

Sustainable | Sustaining City Streets

Streets are an integral part of every city on Earth. They channel the people, vehicles, and materials that help make urban life what it is. They are conduits for the oft-taken-for-granted infrastructures that carry fresh water, energy, and information, and that remove excess stormwater and waste. The very air that we breathe—fresh or foul—flows through our street canyons. That streets are the arteries of the city is, indeed, an apt metaphor. But city streets also function as a front yard, linear ecosystem, market, performance stage, and civic forum, among other duties. In their various forms, streets are places of interaction and exchange, from the everyday to the extraordinary. As the editors affirm, the more we scrutinize, share, and activate sustainable approaches to streets, the greater the likelihood that our streets will help sustain life in cities and, by extension, the planet. While diverse in subject, the papers in this volume are unified in seeing the city street as the complex, impactful, and pliable urban phenomenon that it is. Topics range from greenstreets to transit networks to pedestrian safety and walkability. Anyone seeking interdisciplinary perspectives on what makes for good city streets and street networks should find this book of interest

The effect of asymmetrical street aspect ratios on urban wind flow and pedestrian thermal comfort conditions

PhD ThesisOver the last six decades, due to the discovery of oil and improvement in economic conditions in Saudi Arabia, the design of urban traditional neighbourhoods has changed from organic and pedestrian-oriented to geometric and vehicle-oriented, which has greatly influenced the pedestrian use of outdoor spaces. Combined with the high ambient air temperatures, these current trends affect wind flow patterns and pedestrian thermal comfort conditions in the hot arid region of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. Numerous studies were conducted correlating the configuration of urban street geometries (presented by height to width H/W aspect ratios) with thermal comfort, but mostly conducted in relation to exposure to solar radiation. Most of the previous studies have focused on symmetrical aspect ratios rather than asymmetrical ones, thus limit the available knowledge on asymmetrical canyon studies, which are more representative of actual urban areas. The study of multiple asymmetrical urban street aspect ratios (i.e. diverse buildings height to street width), based on optimising the buildings’ height to influence wind flow rate, has not received much attention in the context of urban pedestrian thermal comfort, particularly in low wind speed environments within hot arid regions. The present study aims to evaluate the effects of multi-asymmetrical street aspect ratios on urban pedestrian microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort conditions, through a case study of Quba Road, to find ways to enhance the thermal comfort level compared to the existing urban configuration. The road is a commercial/residential route linking two prominent religious sites in Madinah. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ANSYS Fluent 13.0 software is used as a numerical modelling tool to simulate the urban pedestrian microclimates for comparative studies, and results validated by field measurements. The CFD analysis is used for evaluating the air temperature and wind velocity measurements within the windward and leeward canyons of Quba Road. Thermal comfort is expressed by means of the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) index using RayMan software, with a comfort range of 21oC – 31.3oC. The findings indicate that the strategy of leeward gradual increase in multiple asymmetrical aspect ratios, with H/W of 1 – 1.3 – 2.3 (building heights of 12m-15m-27m and streets width of 12m), improves wind velocity magnitudes at the pedestrian level by 169% (from 0.65m/s to 1.75m/s) and reduces ambient air temperatures by 3.4oC, which is recommended for enhancing urban pedestrian microclimates in low wind speed environments. The research predicts that possible changes to the configuration of the urban fabric can decrease urban heat stress for pedestrians by 4.9oC (PET).sponsorship from the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi

The scale of sense : spatial extent and multimodal urban design

This paper is derived from the work of the UK AHRC/EPSRC 'Designing for the 21st Century' research project Multimodal Representation of Urban Space. This research group seeks to establish a new form of notation for urban design which pays attention to our entire sensory experience of place. This paper addresses one of the most important aspects of this endeavour: scale. Scale is of course a familiar abstraction to all architects and urban designers, allowing for representations tailored to different levels of detail and allowing drawings to be translated into build structures. Scale is also a factor in human experience: the spatial extent of each of our senses is different. Many forms of architectonic representation are founded upon the extension of the visual modality, and designs are accordingly tuned towards this sense. We can all speak from our own experience, however, that urban environments are a feast for all the senses. The visceral quality of walking down a wide tree-lined boulevard differs greatly from the subterranean crowds of the subway, or the meandering pause invited by the city square. Similarly, our experience of hearing and listening is more than just a passive observation by virtue of our own power of voice and the feedback created by our percussive movements across a surface or through a medium. Taste and smell are also excited by the urban environment, the social importance of food preparation and the associations between smell and public health are issues of sensory experience. The tactile experience of space, felt with the entire body as well as our more sensitive hands, allowing for direct manipulation and interactions as well as sensations of mass, heat, proximity and texture. Our project team shall present a series of tools for designers which explore the variety of sensory modalities and their associated scales. This suite of notations and analytical frameworks turn our attention to the sensory experience of places, and offers a method and pattern book for more holistic multi-sensory and multi-modal urban design

Environmental Regeneration Integrating Soft Mobility and Green Street Networks: A Case Study in the Metropolitan Periphery of Naples

Public space and street networks form a significant and central determinant of urban quality. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has focused their crucial importance in the reorganisation of places that are “safe” because they allow movement through cities with minimal risk of contagion. While addressing the need for social distancing, open-air exercise, and mobility without the use of public transport, these measures resulted in other environmental and social benefits. Living with the coronavirus pandemic has produced a series of adaptative actions, such as barring or limiting automobile traffic, thereby expanding street space for pedestrians and bicyclists, whose impact is, as yet, difficult to fathom because of their contingent, temporary nature. In this context, this case study proposes a sustainable bicycle network to inform the future, permanent street redesign. Based on topographic, morphologic, and climatic data, it evaluates a series of contiguous road sections, defining redesign capacities and critical conditions to implement sustainable interventions to manage urban runoff, mitigate of extreme heat events, expand pedestrian paths and provide a bicycle network. This holistic approach to sustainable urban design evaluation, supported by reproducible data and parameters, serves as a replicable model for the sustainable redesign of roads in other urban settings. The extent, integration, and complexity of the study engaged an interdisciplinary framework, facilitating detailed planning and design and quantified assessments of the environmental outcomes

Landscape Urbanism and Green Infrastructure

This volume examines the applicability of landscape urbanism theory in contemporary landscape architecture practice by bringing together ecology and architecture in the built environment. Using participatory planning of green infrastructure and application of nature-based solutions to address urban challenges, landscape urbanism seeks to reintroduce critical connections between natural and urban systems. In light of ongoing developments in landscape architecture, the goal is a paradigm shift towards a landscape that restores and rehabilitates urban ecosystems. Nine contributions examine a wide range of successful cases of designing livable and resilient cities in different geographical contexts, from the United States of America to Australia and Japan, and through several European cities in Italy, Portugal, Estonia, and Greece. While some chapters attempt to conceptualize the interconnections between cities and nature, others clearly have an empirical focus. Efforts such as the use of ornamental helophyte plants in bioretention ponds to reduce and treat stormwater runoff, the recovery of a poorly constructed urban waterway or participatory approaches for optimizing the location of green stormwater infrastructure and examining the environmental justice issue of equative availability and accessibility to public open spaces make these innovations explicit. Thus, this volume contributes to the sustainable cities goal of the United Nations

Enhancing quality of life in residential high-rises by sustainable design responses

After the end of World War II, in England was observed a proliferation of high-rises, replacing the destroyed buildings by the bombing and the existing slums. However, their popularity variated with time, at first being seen as a great improvement of the living condition, but later the authorities faced many complain that these buildings were unfit for normal living and especially for families and children. Nowadays England has to cope with a great heritage of towers from the 60s’ and the 70s’, as well as an increase in the construction of new high-rise buildings especially in the capital London. This research recognises the need to improve the design of the existing and future high-rises so they are in the same time sustainable and provide a better quality of life for the occupiers. Therefor an overall aim of the study was formulated: to investigate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the impact of high-rise buildings on quality of life through four objectives. The first one is to evaluate the connection between sustainability and quality of life indicators in high-rise buildings. The second one it to analyse liveability of high-rise buildings for better quality of life. The third one is to analyse energy-efficient solutions and their impact on enhancing quality of life. The final objective is to produce a conceptual framework for designing sustainable high-rise residential buildings enhancing quality of life. The methodology adopts an interpretive and realist paradigm and the data for this research was gathered from primary and secondary sources: interviews, observations and archival data. After searching SkyscraperPage database, it was found that two types of high-rise persist around UK and are numerous in London and Manchester: 12-16 storey buildings with brick cladding and 22-30 storey buildings with concrete cladding, so a limited number of buildings with these characteristics were selected for the case study. Actually, an effort to interview 3 to 5 residents in the same building at low, middle and high floors was made, instead of interviewing single residents from numerous different high-rises, in order to evaluate the significance of the height. The preferred method was interviews, as questionnaires were found to provide superficial data, open to misinterpretation from the researcher. Interviews, on the other hand, provided in-depth information about the social phenomenon: high-rise living, many surprising answers and most importantly, attitudes and preferences that were not influenced by the formulation of the questions but were formulated by the interviewees themselves. Seventeen interviews with residents were conducted in two old high-rises in Manchester and four in London to include the users ‘needs into the research process. Twelve interviews with residents in new high-rises illustrated the existing variations for the design issues. Additionally, twelve architects shared their proven experience designing residential high-rises, offering invaluable expertise for the design of sustainable residential high-rises providing better quality of life. The data generated then were analysed by content analysis and dynamic simulations with DesignBuilder of an approximated model of one of the studied high-rise complemented the interviews, investigating different building envelops and HVAC scenarios. This quantitative method supported the somewhat subjective findings regarding thermal comfort and cost-efficiency from the interviews. The main findings showed that specific sustainable design solutions are adequate for enhancing the quality of life in residential high-rise buildings. Some alerting data from the interviews with the residents reveals difficulties imposed by the design on the social interactions, more common in the old high-rises lacking any amenities. Other important findings inform that both existing and contemporary designs are not orientated towards the needs of the families with children, a major weakness stated by both the architects and the residents. The observations provided support for a view that both modern and old high-rises often fail to enhance and improve the built environment by both appearance and mix of functions, a valuable facet of the high-rises’ social impact. The analysis led to the elaboration of a theoretical framework that can be used by professionals and academics to guide their design process and constitutes the major contribution to knowledge