A bioclimatic design methodology for urban outdoor spaces

Summary The development of a bioclimatic urban design methodology is described. The cluster thermal time constant (CTTC) model for predicting street-level urban air temperature variations is coupled with the wind-profile power law and the index of thermal stress (ITS.) for human comfort. TheCTTC model and the power law produce the diurnal air temperature and wind speed variations in various canyonlike urban forms. The thermal comfort requirements for lightly-dressed, moderately-walking/seated persons in the outdoor space in summer are then obtained using the ITS. model. The proposed methodology enables a first-order assessment of the climatic implications of different features of the physical structure of the city such as street orientation, canyon height-to-width ratio, building density, and street shading. The application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated for Tel Aviv.With 9 Figures