TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of urban form and design on mid-afternoon microclimate in Phoenix Local Climate Zones
AU - Middel, Ariane
AU - Häb, Kathrin
AU - Brazel, Anthony J.
AU - Martin, Chris
AU - Guhathakurta, Subhrajit
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant SES-0951366 , Decision Center for a Desert City II: Urban Climate Adaptation ; Grant BCS-1026865 , Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research, CAP-LTER ; Grant 1031690 , CMMI ) and the German Science Foundation (DFG, Grant 1131 ) as part of the International Graduate School (IRTG 1131) at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies. We gratefully acknowledge the editorial support of Sally Wittlinger and Michele Roy.
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - This study investigates the impact of urban form and landscaping type on the mid-afternoon microclimate in semi-arid Phoenix, Arizona. The goal is to find effective urban form and design strategies to ameliorate temperatures during the summer months. We simulated near-ground air temperatures for typical residential neighborhoods in Phoenix using the three-dimensional microclimate model ENVI-met. The model was validated using weather observations from the North Desert Village (NDV) landscape experiment, located on the Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus. The NDV is an ideal site to determine the model's input parameters, since it is a controlled environment recreating three prevailing residential landscape types in the Phoenix metropolitan area (mesic, oasis, and xeric). After validation, we designed five neighborhoods with different urban forms that represent a realistic cross-section of typical residential neighborhoods in Phoenix. The scenarios follow the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification scheme after Stewart and Oke. We then combined the neighborhoods with three landscape designs and, using ENVI-met, simulated microclimate conditions for these neighborhoods for a typical summer day. Results were analyzed in terms of mid-afternoon air temperature distribution and variation, ventilation, surface temperatures, and shading. Findings show that advection is important for the distribution of within-design temperatures and that spatial differences in cooling are strongly related to solar radiation and local shading patterns. In mid-afternoon, dense urban forms can create local cool islands. Our approach suggests that the LCZ concept is useful for planning and design purposes.
AB - This study investigates the impact of urban form and landscaping type on the mid-afternoon microclimate in semi-arid Phoenix, Arizona. The goal is to find effective urban form and design strategies to ameliorate temperatures during the summer months. We simulated near-ground air temperatures for typical residential neighborhoods in Phoenix using the three-dimensional microclimate model ENVI-met. The model was validated using weather observations from the North Desert Village (NDV) landscape experiment, located on the Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus. The NDV is an ideal site to determine the model's input parameters, since it is a controlled environment recreating three prevailing residential landscape types in the Phoenix metropolitan area (mesic, oasis, and xeric). After validation, we designed five neighborhoods with different urban forms that represent a realistic cross-section of typical residential neighborhoods in Phoenix. The scenarios follow the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification scheme after Stewart and Oke. We then combined the neighborhoods with three landscape designs and, using ENVI-met, simulated microclimate conditions for these neighborhoods for a typical summer day. Results were analyzed in terms of mid-afternoon air temperature distribution and variation, ventilation, surface temperatures, and shading. Findings show that advection is important for the distribution of within-design temperatures and that spatial differences in cooling are strongly related to solar radiation and local shading patterns. In mid-afternoon, dense urban forms can create local cool islands. Our approach suggests that the LCZ concept is useful for planning and design purposes.
KW - ENVI-met modeling
KW - Local climate zones
KW - Microclimate
KW - Urban design
KW - Urban form
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U2 - 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.11.004
DO - 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.11.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84892173748
VL - 122
SP - 16
EP - 28
JO - Landscape Planning
JF - Landscape Planning
SN - 0169-2046
ER -