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Sofia Thorsson
University of Gothenburg
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Int J Biometeorol
DOI 10.1007/s00484-013-0638-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Introduction
Mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) is one of the most important
meteorological parameters governing human energy balance
and thermal comfort outdoors, especially during clear and
calm summer days (Mayer and Hppe 1987). Tmrt is defined
as the uniform temperature of an imaginary enclosure in
which the radiant heat transfer from the human body equals
the radiant heat transfer in the actual non-uniform enclosure
(ASHRAE 2001) and its spatial variations during the day
are chiefly influenced by shadow patterns generated by
obstructing objects such as trees, buildings and general
topography (Lindberg and Grimmond 2011b). Other factors
that affect Tmrt are the thermal and radiative properties of
surrounding surface materials (albedo, emissivity, thermal
admittance, etc). Compared to other parameters influencing
the thermal comfort, such as air temperature (Ta) and air
humidity, Tmrt shows large spatial variations over short
distances. Mayer et al. (2008) demonstrated this by comparing Ta and Tmrt in one sunlit and one shaded location
adjacent to each other in the city of Freiburg, Germany
during warm and clear summer weather. The differences in
Tmrt could be as much as 37 C whereas Ta showed a
difference of only 12 C between the two locations.
Cloudiness affects the spatial pattern of the radiative fluxes
from solid surfaces (ground, buildings and vegetation, etc.)
as well as from the sky vault, which in turn affect Tmrt. The
reduction of direct shortwave radiation with increased
cloudiness reduces the differences between sunlit and shaded areas. The proportion of diffuse radiation from the sky
vault increases with increased cloudiness. The difference
between the surface temperatures of sunlit and shaded surfaces also reduces as cloudiness increases, which in turn
affects the long wave radiation fluxes (Lindberg et al. 2008;
Lindberg and Grimmond 2011a; Konarska et al. 2012).
Another important determinant of the outdoor human
Int J Biometeorol
Methods
Study area for spatial analysis
To explore the spatial variations of Tmrt for a standing
person in the urban environment, a 3-D representation of
buildings and vegetation is acquired. In this paper, a real
world study area was selected covering a part of the city
centre of Gteborg, located on the Swedish west coast
(57.70 N, 11.94 E). The city centre has a classical
European design, characterized by a compact mid-rise structure with little vegetation. The study area selected covers the
area south of the main train station as shown in Fig. 1. In the
south area of the domain one of the major parks in Gteborg
(Trdgrdsfreningen) is situated. The Digital Surface
Model (DSM) in Fig. 1 is derived from an extensive
geodatabase maintained by the Building and Planning
Office in Gteborg including both building and vegetation
geometries. The DSM is derived according to Lindberg
(2005) and has a resolution of 1 m pixel and an extent of
637 by 400 pixels.
Spatial modelling
This study made use of the SOLWEIG model, which is able
to simulate spatial (2-D) variations of 3-D radiation fluxes
and Tmrt as well as shadow patterns in complex urban
settings. As from Version 2, SOLWEIG can also include
vegetation in the form of trees and bushes in the modelling
procedure. The model has been shown to accurately estimate the radiation fluxes for a number of different urban
settings and weather conditions as well as in different regional contexts (Lindberg and Grimmond 2011a). The model requires the meteorological parameters air temperature,
relative humidity and solar radiation (global and diffuse
components) together with spatial data in the form of a
DSM (see the section Study area for spatial analysis) and a
geographical location. Tmrt is calculated for a (rotationally
symmetric) standing or walking person where the angular
factors are set to 0.22 for radiation fluxes from the four
cardinal points (east, west, north and south) and 0.06 for
radiation fluxes from above and below. Absorption coefficients for shortwave and longwave radiation are 0.7 and
0.97, respectively. Albedo and emissivity for buildings and
vegetation is set to 0.20 and 0.95, respectively. The transmissivity of shortwave and longwave radiation through
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 1 Model domain covering the area around the central station in Gteborg (Sweden). Spatial resolution is 1 m. Green circles shows location
and extent of vegetation units. White lines are base map features such as pavement edges, etc.
Int J Biometeorol
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 3 Spatial variations of Tmrt (standing man) (C) during clear and
warm weather in the city centre of Gteborg, Sweden at 1500 h LST on
6 June 1997 (a). B through D show spatial patterns when global
radiation is reduced to: 80 % (b), 60 % (c), and 40 % (d) of its original
Int J Biometeorol
radiation. b Diffuse shortwave radiation. c Reflected shortwave radiation. d Outgoing longwave radiation. e Incoming longwave radiation. f
Average longwave radiation from the four cardinal points
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 5 Continuous sky view factors (SVF) for the study area including both buildings and vegetation units. Black represents SVF=0 and white
represents SVF=1
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 6 Hourly values of Tmrt (standing man) versus sky view factor (SVF)
for the different levels of global radiation for the model domain as
shown in Figs. 4 and 6. 100 % (a), 80 % (b), 60 % (b), and 40 % (d) of
the original global radiation value. Only ground pixels are considered
(n=173842). Red data points are sunlit and blue are data points in
shadow
Scatterplots between Tmrt and sky cloudiness (here represented by D/G) for fictitious sunlit points with different
SVFs in Gteborg between 1983 and 2006 are shown in
Fig. 7. Only daytime situations are considered (G>0). A low
value of D/G represents clear weather conditions and a high
value (close to 1) represents overcast weather conditions. A
number of interesting features are shown. First, the shape of
the data point cloud changes as the SVF is altered. The
highest value of Tmrt (71.4 C) was found during semicloudy conditions in the fictitious open space (SVF=1.00).
The reason for this is the high diffuse radiation (475 Wm2)
in combination with high value of global radiation (749 W
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 7 Hourly daytime values of Tmrt (standing man) versus cloudiness (diffuse/global) at a sunlit location for different urban geometries (SVFs)
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 8 Monthly averages of Tmrt, air temperature, global radiation, and cloudiness for Gteborg, Lule and Stockholm between 1983 and 2007.
Cloudiness is calculated for a midday period between 10 AM and 2 PM
Int J Biometeorol
Int J Biometeorol
Fig. 10 Radiative loads as calculated in SOLWEIG during peak values of Tmrt at a fictitious location (SVF=0.60) in Gteborg (GBG), Lule (LUL) and
Stockholm (STK) for a spherical body (a) and a cylindrical body (standing man) (b). Components L are longwave, and components K shortwave
Int J Biometeorol
swings in Tmrt (Fig. 7), i.e. reducing the heat stress as well as
cold stress. These results are in line with previous studies
(Thorsson et al. 2011).
Tmrt is similar throughout Sweden in summer (Figs. 8 and
9). This implies that the same design guidelines to reduce
heat stress can be applied in all three cities. However,
latitudinal differences result in different sun altitudes, which
needs to be considered in terms of shadows from building
and vegetation. In high latitude areas, there is always a great
challenge for architects and urban planners to create outdoor
urban settings which are both able to mitigate heat during a
few hazardous occasions but also to be pleasant during the
rest of the year. During heat waves, shadowing is one the
most effective measures for mitigating high Tmrt . However,
extensive areas of shadow are usually not desired in the
outdoor environments of high latitude cities. One solution
is to create diverse outdoor urban spaces in terms of shadow,
ventilation, etc. This gives opportunities of various choices
within short distances to regulate the thermal environment
of the human body based on personal needs and desires
(Thorsson et al. 2004). Another effective mitigation of heat
stress is to maximize shading in areas that tend to heat up,
i.e. sunlit areas, especially those close to buildings or in
densely built structures.
Besides altering the urban geometry, vegetation has
shown to be an effective and relatively simple measure to
mitigate heat stress during periods of extensive temperatures
(Lindberg and Grimmond 2011a; Bowler et al. 2010;
Shashua-Bar et al. 2011; Picot 2004; Mayer et al. 2008).
In order to maximize the cooling effect type, arrangements
and location of vegetation need to be considered. In terms of
type of vegetation, trees are to be preferred over lower
vegetation (bushes, ground vegetation) due to their ability
to provide shade (Lindberg and Grimmond 2011b;
Konarska et al. 2012). Furthermore, species that thrive in
relatively warm and dry environments should be selected in
order to provide maximum growth and thus maximum
cooling (Sjman and Busse Nielsen 2010). During the day
the cooling effect of trees is mainly due to shading
(Konarska et al. 2012; Mayer et al. 2008), which implies
that vegetation should be placed near surfaces that tend to
heat up, i.e. trees near north facing walls have a limited
cooling effect on its surroundings. By planning vegetation
in different layers, i.e. a mix of trees, shrubs and ground
vegetation, the shading as well as the cooling effect can be
increased (Shashua-Bar et al. 2011). Adding vegetation in
areas with no or little vegetation has been shown to give a
larger cooling effect than adding vegetation in already highly vegetated areas (Loridan and Grimmond 2012).
Altering the material of the surrounding surfaces could
also be an option to regulate the outdoor thermal environment. However, these measures usually have a minor effect.
Erell (2012) showed that although high-albedo surfaces may
Conclusions
Increasing the knowledge on how Tmrt varies based on
factors such as location, climate and urban setting contributes to the practice of climate sensitive planning. This paper
examines various aspects on how Tmrt varies spatially within
a high latitude urban setting based on cloudiness.
Furthermore, long-term variations of Tmrt in different regional settings within Sweden are investigated.
Results show a clear change in the spatial pattern of
T mrt between clear and cloudy weather situations.
Besides the large variations between sunlit and
shadowed areas during clear weather, the highest values
of Tmrt are found close to sunlit walls. Increased cloudiness alters the spatial pattern by reducing the differences between sunlit and shaded areas as well as
moving the warmest areas of Tmrt to open areas where
the proportion of shortwave diffuse radiation from the
sky vault is high. Vegetation lowers Tmrt through both
shadow generation and by lowering surface temperatures compared to building walls. From a regional
comparison of three Swedish coastal cities, it is shown
that Tmrt during summer is similar regardless of latitudinal location. This could foremost be explained by the
Int J Biometeorol
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Int J Biometeorol
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