Abstract
Outdoor thermal comfort is a major concern in urban areas throughout the world. Sophisticated modeling techniques have been developed to analyze the interaction of the urban areas with the regional climate. However, in most cases, the assessment of outdoor thermal comfort is not based on a long-term analysis and provides results only for specific meteorological conditions. In this study, we apply a clustering method to yearly weather files with the aim of obtaining representative boundary conditions for urban microclimatic models. The results describe typical-day weather situations commonly known as weather types. The study is carried out in the hot and humid tropical conditions of Singapore, where ten weather types are defined. The analysis of the clusters’ performance shows adequate results. ENVI-met (v.4.3) model is used to evaluate the impact of weather types on thermal comfort in a courtyard surrounded by high-rise buildings. Results not only show different levels of thermal comfort but also different spatial distribution and diurnal evolution inside the courtyard for each weather type. We conclude that it is relevant to analyze thermal comfort in all predominant weather conditions so as to have an accurate and complete assessment of the existing thermal situation. The approach presented in this study will provide better support to planners and decision makers in the development of urban spaces in regard to their expected use.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank XianXiang Li for his support and many other researchers in CENSAM-SMART, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore ETH Center (SEC), and Technical University of Munich (TUM) for the fruitful discussions in the framework of “Cooling Singapore” project.
The work leading to these results was financially supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) under its Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.
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Highlights
k-means clustering method is reliable to develop weather types for thermal comfort assessment.
Ten weather types were developed for a specific area of Singapore.
Using weather types is relevant and improves thermal comfort evaluations.
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Acero, J.A., Koh, E.J.K., Pignatta, G. et al. Clustering weather types for urban outdoor thermal comfort evaluation in a tropical area. Theor Appl Climatol 139, 659–675 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-019-02992-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-019-02992-9