Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city

Designing cities for thermal comfort is an important priority in a warming and urbanizing world. As temperatures in cities continue to break extreme heat records, it is necessary to develop and test new approaches capable of tracking human thermal sensations influenced by microclimate conditions, co...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: DZYUBAN, Yuliya, HONDULA, David M., VANOS, Jennifer K., MIDELL, Ariane, COSEO, Paul J., KURAS, Evan R., REDMAN, Charles L.
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research_all/15
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research_all/article/1014/viewcontent/SSRN_id4009691.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
id sg-smu-ink.cis_research_all-1014
record_format dspace
spelling sg-smu-ink.cis_research_all-10142022-08-18T05:07:15Z Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city DZYUBAN, Yuliya HONDULA, David M. VANOS, Jennifer K. MIDELL, Ariane COSEO, Paul J. KURAS, Evan R. REDMAN, Charles L. Designing cities for thermal comfort is an important priority in a warming and urbanizing world. As temperatures in cities continue to break extreme heat records, it is necessary to develop and test new approaches capable of tracking human thermal sensations influenced by microclimate conditions, complex urban geometries, and individual charac-teristics in dynamic settings. Thermal walks are a promising novel research method to address this gap. During a ther-mal walk in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, we examined relationships between the built environment, microclimate, and subjective thermal judgments across a downtown city neighborhood slated for redevelopment. Subjects equipped with GPS devices participated in a 1-hour walk on a hot sunny day and recorded their experience in a field guide. Mi-croclimate measurements were simultaneously collected using the mobile human-biometeorological instrument plat-form MaRTy. Results revealed significant differences in physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) and between street segments with more than 18 degrees C (25 degrees C mPET) be-tween the maximum and minimum values. Wider range of mPET values reflected the inclusion of individual level data into the model. Streets with higher sky view factor (SVF) and east-west orientation showed a higher PET and mPET overall. Furthermore, we showed evidence of thermal alliesthesia, the pleasure resulting from slight changes in micro -climate conditions. Participants' sense of pleasure was related to the mean PET of the segment they just walked, with linear regression explaining over 60% of the variability. We also showed that estimated percent shade was significantly correlated with SVF, PET, mPET, and pleasure, indicating that participants could sense minor changes in microclimate and perceived shade as pleasant. Although generalization of results is limited by a low sample size, findings of this study improve the understanding of dynamic thermal comfort in complex urban environments and highlight the value of thermal walks as a robust research method. 2022-08-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research_all/15 info:doi/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155294 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research_all/article/1014/viewcontent/SSRN_id4009691.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection College of Integrative Studies eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Outdoor thermal comfort Alliesthesia Urban design Extreme heat mitigation Environmental Design Urban Studies and Planning
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Outdoor thermal comfort
Alliesthesia
Urban design
Extreme heat mitigation
Environmental Design
Urban Studies and Planning
spellingShingle Outdoor thermal comfort
Alliesthesia
Urban design
Extreme heat mitigation
Environmental Design
Urban Studies and Planning
DZYUBAN, Yuliya
HONDULA, David M.
VANOS, Jennifer K.
MIDELL, Ariane
COSEO, Paul J.
KURAS, Evan R.
REDMAN, Charles L.
Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
description Designing cities for thermal comfort is an important priority in a warming and urbanizing world. As temperatures in cities continue to break extreme heat records, it is necessary to develop and test new approaches capable of tracking human thermal sensations influenced by microclimate conditions, complex urban geometries, and individual charac-teristics in dynamic settings. Thermal walks are a promising novel research method to address this gap. During a ther-mal walk in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, we examined relationships between the built environment, microclimate, and subjective thermal judgments across a downtown city neighborhood slated for redevelopment. Subjects equipped with GPS devices participated in a 1-hour walk on a hot sunny day and recorded their experience in a field guide. Mi-croclimate measurements were simultaneously collected using the mobile human-biometeorological instrument plat-form MaRTy. Results revealed significant differences in physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) and between street segments with more than 18 degrees C (25 degrees C mPET) be-tween the maximum and minimum values. Wider range of mPET values reflected the inclusion of individual level data into the model. Streets with higher sky view factor (SVF) and east-west orientation showed a higher PET and mPET overall. Furthermore, we showed evidence of thermal alliesthesia, the pleasure resulting from slight changes in micro -climate conditions. Participants' sense of pleasure was related to the mean PET of the segment they just walked, with linear regression explaining over 60% of the variability. We also showed that estimated percent shade was significantly correlated with SVF, PET, mPET, and pleasure, indicating that participants could sense minor changes in microclimate and perceived shade as pleasant. Although generalization of results is limited by a low sample size, findings of this study improve the understanding of dynamic thermal comfort in complex urban environments and highlight the value of thermal walks as a robust research method.
format text
author DZYUBAN, Yuliya
HONDULA, David M.
VANOS, Jennifer K.
MIDELL, Ariane
COSEO, Paul J.
KURAS, Evan R.
REDMAN, Charles L.
author_facet DZYUBAN, Yuliya
HONDULA, David M.
VANOS, Jennifer K.
MIDELL, Ariane
COSEO, Paul J.
KURAS, Evan R.
REDMAN, Charles L.
author_sort DZYUBAN, Yuliya
title Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
title_short Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
title_full Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
title_fullStr Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
title_full_unstemmed Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
title_sort evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2022
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research_all/15
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research_all/article/1014/viewcontent/SSRN_id4009691.pdf
_version_ 1770567706989297664