Assessment of green design strategies to achieve thermal comfort in outdoor spaces: A study in hot and dry climate

ABE Laboratory, University of Constantine 3 Salah Boubnider, Constantine, Algeria

^* Corresponding author: samira.louafi@univ-constantine3.dz

Abstract

Outdoor spaces in cities contribute to improve urban quality. Improving outdoor thermal comfort is important to consider in achieving urban life and functionality. In order, green areas have shown to be effective at reducing the effects of several climatic elements associated with heat stress in urban settings while also giving people a great outdoor setting. The most basic problem is that most recent projects in Constantine cities did not take into account the usage of green design solutions, causing in human outdoor heat discomfort. This study aims to enable designers to ameliorate the conditions in outdoor spaces. The main objective of this paper is to discuss and assess the impact of geometry and shade trees on the external thermal comfort conditions due to the significant effects of thermal comfort on citizens, especially in hot and dry regions. The methodology is based on in-situ measurements and a questionnaire survey during the warm season. A simulation with Envi-met5 software to evaluate different scenarios for five climatic parameters and PMV (predicted mean vote index) are used. The results showed that the presence of trees is an important strategy to modify and regulate the thermal environment in this type of hot and dry climate.