High-Fidelity Simulation of the Effects of Street Trees, Green Roofs and Green Walls on the Distribution of Thermal Exposure in Prague-Dejvice

0560798 - ÚI 2023 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Geletič, Jan - Lehnert, M. - Resler, Jaroslav - Krč, Pavel - Middel, C. - Krayenhoff, E. S. - Krüger, E.
High-Fidelity Simulation of the Effects of Street Trees, Green Roofs and Green Walls on the Distribution of Thermal Exposure in Prague-Dejvice.
Building and Environment. Roč. 223, September 2022 (2022), č. článku 109484. ISSN 0360-1323. E-ISSN 1873-684X
R&D Projects: GA TA ČR(CZ) TO01000219
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/23; AV ČR(CZ) MSM100302001
Program: StrategieAV; Program na podporu mezinárodní spolupráce začínajících výzkumných pracovníků
Institutional support: RVO:67985807
Keywords : Urban greenery * Universal thermal climate index (UTCI) * Thermal comfort * Biometeorology * PALM * Heat-wave
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
Impact factor: 7.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109484

We investigate the heat stress mitigation potential of greening strategies in Prague using a configuration of the PALM-4U model that has been rigorously evaluated with measurements. Three greening scenarios were evaluated using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). The UTCI reduction effect of broad-leaf or coniferous trees in a complex urban environment was found to be strongly local, with minor domain-average UTCI reductions. −4.1K under tree crowns and −0.6K on average in the neighbourhood as a day-time average, peaking at about twice these values near midday. During daytime the UTCI reduction potential of trees increases with the intensity and duration of solar exposure. −15.1K is the spatial maximum across all scenarios. For trees fully shaded by buildings, UTCI reduction was low (−0.5K as maximum). Tree planting reduces air temperature by more than 5K in some locations under trees, and reduces neighbourhood-average air temperature by up to 0.3K, with cooling peaking in the early evening about 8 h after the corresponding peak in UTCI reduction. Results emphasize the highly localized microclimate effects of trees for pedestrian thermal exposure reduction. The combination of green walls and roofs yielded negligible results in terms of UTCI reduction and only small air temperature effects.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0333582


Research data: Zenodo, PDF postprint (use password "dejvice")