Heat in Courtyards: A Validated and Calibrated Parametric Study of Heat Mitigation Strategies for Urban Courtyards in the Netherlands

Outdoor thermal comfort in urban spaces is an important contributor to pedestrians’ health. A parametric study into different geometries and orientations of urban courtyard blocks in the Netherlands was therefore conducted for the hottest day in the Dutch reference year (19th June 2000 with the maximum 33 °C air temperature). The study also considered the most severe climate scenario for the Netherlands for the year 2050. Three urban heat mitigation strategies that moderate the microclimate of the courtyards were investigated: changing the albedo of the facades of the urban blocks, including water ponds and including urban vegetation. The results showed that a north–south canyon orientation provides the shortest and the east–west direction the longest duration of direct sun at the centre of the courtyards. Moreover, increasing the albedo of the facades actually increased the mean radiant temperature in a closed urban layout such as a courtyard. In contrast, using a water pool and urban vegetation cooled the microclimates; providing further evidence of their promise as strategies for cooling cities. The results are validated through a field measurement and calibration.

[1]  Martijn Gough.  Climate change , 2009, Canadian Medical Association Journal.

[2]  Edna Shaviv,et al.  Design guidelines for appropriate insolation of urban squares , 2006 .

[3]  V. Carrasco,et al.  Shade, water and mass: Passive cooling in Andalucia , 1996 .

[4]  Martin Tenpierik,et al.  A review into thermal comfort in buildings , 2013 .

[5]  J. Monteith,et al.  Boundary Layer Climates. , 1979 .

[6]  M. Holmes,et al.  Climate change, thermal comfort and energy: Meeting the design challenges of the 21st century , 2007 .

[7]  J. Beringer,et al.  Watering our cities , 2013 .

[8]  M. Santamouris.  Cooling the cities – A review of reflective and green roof mitigation technologies to fight heat island and improve comfort in urban environments , 2014 .

[9]  W. Emery,et al.  Satellite-derived urban heat islands from three coastal cities and the utilization of such data in urban climatology , 1989 .

[10]  Akira Hoyano,et al.  Climatological uses of plants for solar control and the effects on the thermal environment of a building , 1988 .

[11]  Masson-Delmotte,et al.  The Physical Science Basis , 2007 .

[12]  Ergonomics of the thermal environment — Instruments for measuring physical quantities , 1998 .

[13]  Marialena Nikolopoulou,et al.  Vegetation in the urban environment: microclimatic analysis and benefits , 2003 .

[14]  Richard de Dear,et al.  Energy use impact of and thermal comfort in different urban block types in the Netherlands , 2013 .

[15]  T. Oke,et al.  Scale Modelling of Nocturnal Cooling in Urban Parks , 1999 .

[16]  Feng Yang,et al.  Thermal comfort effects of urban design strategies in high-rise urban environments in a sub-tropical climate , 2011 .

[17]  R. Betts,et al.  Climate and more sustainable cities: climate information for improved planning and management of cities (producers/capabilities perspective) , 2010 .

[18]  Baruch Givoni,et al.  Climate considerations in building and urban design , 1998 .

[19]  Stephen Siu Yu Lau,et al.  Introducing Healing Gardens into a Compact University Campus: Design Natural Space to Create Healthy and Sustainable Campuses , 2009 .

[20]  R. Belarbi,et al.  A comprehensive study of the impact of green roofs on building energy performance , 2012 .

[21]  Gordon A. Bradley,et al.  Urban forest landscapes : integrating multidisciplinary perspectives , 1995 .

[22]  Tsuyoshi Fujita,et al.  Cooling effect of water-holding pavements made of new materials on water and heat budgets in urban areas , 2010 .

[23]  Luke Howard,et al.  The Climate of London: Deduced from Meteorological Observations , 2012 .

[24]  M. Bruse,et al.  Simulating surface–plant–air interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model , 1998 .

[25]  David J. Sailor,et al.  Mitigation of urban heat islands: materials, utility programs, updates , 1995 .

[26]  M. Saier,et al.  Climate Change, 2007 , 2007 .

[27]  M. E. Esch,et al.  The effects of urban and building design parameters on solar access to the urban canyon and the potential for direct passive solar heating strategies , 2012 .

[28]  H. Akbari,et al.  Global cooling updates: Reflective roofs and pavements , 2012 .

[29]  Virginia Stovin,et al.  Green roofs; building energy savings and the potential for retrofit , 2010 .

[30]  Tzu-Ping Lin,et al.  Seasonal effects of urban street shading on long-term outdoor thermal comfort , 2011 .

[31]  Martin Tenpierik,et al.  Energy performance and thermal comfort of courtyard/atrium dwellings in the Netherlands in the light of climate change , 2014 .

[32]  Hashem Akbari,et al.  Energy effects of heat-island reduction strategies in Toronto, Canada , 2004 .

[33]  Gordon B. Bonan,et al.  The microclimates of a suburban Colorado (USA) landscape and implications for planning and design , 2000 .

[34]  Da‐hong Wang,et al.  Symptom definitions for SBS (sick building syndrome) in residential dwellings. , 2008, International journal of hygiene and environmental health.

[35]  Hassan Radhi,et al.  Impacts of urbanisation on the thermal behaviour of new built up environments: A scoping study of the urban heat island in Bahrain , 2013 .

[36]  Agis M. Papadopoulos,et al.  The influence of street canyons on the cooling loads of buildings and the performance of air conditioning systems , 2001 .

[37]  T. McMahon,et al.  Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification , 2007 .

[38]  Julia Hidalgo,et al.  How is climatic adaptation taken into account by legal tools? Introduction of water and vegetation by French town planning documents , 2013 .

[39]  H. L. Miller,et al.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis , 2007 .

[40]  N. Wong,et al.  Environmental study of the impact of greenery in an institutional campus in the tropics , 2007 .

[41]  Jonathan Karlsson,et al.  A conceptual model that simulates the influence of thermal inertia in building structures , 2013 .

[42]  Luis S. Pereira,et al.  Evapotranspiration: Concepts and Future Trends , 1999 .

[43]  Haider Taha,et al.  Mesoscale meteorological and air quality impacts of increased urban albedo and vegetation , 1997 .

[44]  Hashem Akbari,et al.  Cooling our Communities. A Guidebook on Tree Planting and Light-Colored Surfacing - eScholarship , 2009 .

[45]  Lambros T. Doulos,et al.  Passive cooling of outdoor urban spaces. The role of materials , 2004 .

[46]  Janet Nichol,et al.  Remote Sensing of Urban Heat Islands by Day and Night , 2005 .

[47]  B. Rudolf,et al.  World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated , 2006 .

[48]  Timothy Carter,et al.  Life-cycle cost-benefit analysis of extensive vegetated roof systems. , 2008, Journal of environmental management.

[49]  Richard Fenner,et al.  Can greenery make commercial buildings more green , 2007 .

[50]  M. Bruse,et al.  Using ENVI-met to simulate the impact of global warming on the mi- croclimate in central European cities , 2008 .

[51]  Hashem Akbari,et al.  Implementation of solar-reflective surfaces: Materials and utility programs , 1992 .

[52]  J. Monteith,et al.  The Micrometeorology of the Urban Forest [and Discussion] , 1989 .

[53]  Mat Santamouris.  Environmental Design of Urban Buildings: An Integrated Approach , 2006 .

[54]  D. Groleau,et al.  Modeling the influence of vegetation and water pond on urban microclimate , 2006 .

[55]  Andreas Matzarakis,et al.  Climate change and thermal bioclimate in cities: impacts and options for adaptation in Freiburg, Germany , 2010, International journal of biometeorology.

[56]  Bassam Abu-Hijleh,et al.  Urban heat islands: Potential effect of organic and structured urban configurations on temperature variations in Dubai, UAE , 2013 .

[57]  D. Sailor.  A review of methods for estimating anthropogenic heat and moisture emissions in the urban environment , 2011 .

[58]  H. Kondo,et al.  Impacts of city-block-scale countermeasures against urban heat-island phenomena upon a building’s energy-consumption for air-conditioning , 2006 .

[59]  M. Santamouris,et al.  Evaluating thermal comfort conditions and health responses during an extremely hot summer in Athens , 2011 .

[60]  L. Shashua-Bar,et al.  The cooling efficiency of urban landscape strategies in a hot dry climate , 2009 .

[61]  S. Solomon.  The Physical Science Basis : Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[62]  N. Wong,et al.  Life cycle cost analysis of rooftop gardens in Singapore , 2003 .

[63]  A. Matzarakis,et al.  Mean radiant temperature in idealised urban canyons—examples from Freiburg, Germany , 2011, International Journal of Biometeorology.

[64]  T. Oke.  The energetic basis of the urban heat island , 1982 .

[65]  David J. Sailor,et al.  Development and application of a building energy performance metric for green roof systems , 2013 .

[66]  Vincent R. Gray.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers , 2007 .

[67]  S. Wilcox,et al.  Users Manual for TMY3 Data Sets (Revised) , 2008 .

[68]  Angus Gentle,et al.  Optimized cool roofs: Integrating albedo and thermal emittance with R-value , 2011 .

[69]  Maria Kolokotroni,et al.  London's urban heat island: Impact on current and future energy consumption in office buildings , 2012 .

[70]  A. V. D. Dobbelsteen,et al.  Thermal Assessment of Heat Mitigation Strategies: the Case of Portland State University, Oregon, USA , 2014 .

[71]  Chi-Ru Chang,et al.  A preliminary study on the local cool-island intensity of Taipei city parks , 2007 .

[72]  V. Olgyay.  Design With Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism , 1963 .

[73]  Sigalit Berkovic,et al.  Study of thermal comfort in courtyards in a hot arid climate , 2012 .

[74]  Tzu-Ping Lin,et al.  Shading effect on long-term outdoor thermal comfort , 2010 .