An Assessment To Evaluate Potential Passive Cooling Patterns For Climate Change Adaptation In A Residential Neighbourhood Of A Mediterranean Coastal City (Athens, Greece)

This study investigates the potential for passive cooling patterns inside the urban fabric in the Mediterranean climate city of Athens (Greece), especially with regard to quantify air temperature reduction and thermal comfort amelioration at the neighbourhood scale. Using both field measurements and an urban microclimate simulation model, we assessed cooling and warming patterns in various sites of an Athens residential neighbourhood. Results show that, under Mediterranean climate conditions, urban design elements such as wooded courtyards and appropriately oriented urban design elements such as galleries have a considerable cooling effect and can be used as cool places inside the neighbourhood for occupants\u27 comfort amelioration and also as passive cooling tools for buildings to reduce summer energy consumption. They may then function as passive design strategies to adapt the urban site form to different climate change scenarios

An assessment to evaluate potential passive cooling patterns for climate change adaptation in a residential neighbourhood of a Mediterranean coastal city (Athens, Greece)

© 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This study investigates the potential for passive cooling patterns inside the urban fabric in the Mediterranean climate city of Athens (Greece), especially with regard to quantify air temperature reduction and thermal comfort amelioration at the neighbourhood scale. Using both field measurements and an urban microclimate simulation model, we assessed cooling and warming patterns in various sites of an Athens residential neighbourhood. Results show that, under Mediterranean climate conditions, urban design elements such as wooded courtyards and appropriately oriented urban design elements such as galleries have a considerable cooling effect and can be used as cool places inside the neighbourhood for occupants\u27 comfort amelioration and also as passive cooling tools for buildings to reduce summer energy consumption. They may then function as passive design strategies to adapt the urban site form to different climate change scenarios

Whose shoe fits best? Dubious physics and power politics in the TMD footprint controversy

Apparent design breakthroughs in short-range missile defense systems such as Theater High-Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) have prompted questions about the legality of such systems under the 1972 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Prominent physicists have used computer “footprint” methodology to prove that if engineered to specifications, THAAD might exceed ABM Treaty performance limits banning highly effective missile defense systems. In response, missile defense officials commissioned Sparta, Inc. to conduct secret research casting doubt on the validity of such findings. The substantial diplomatic issues at stake and the interesting rhetorical dynamics involved in this dispute warrant close scholarly analysis. Attention to the iterative relationship between the interpenetrating spheres of public argument and scientific practice in this case yields novel insight about the processes in which technical knowledge of defense systems is forged and raises fresh issues for the “closure project” in science and technology controversy studies