Resumo

LABAKI, Lucila Chebel; FONTES, Maria Solange Gurgel de Castro; BUENO-BARTHOLOMEI, Carolina Lotufo  e  DACANAL, Cristiane. Thermal comfort in public open spaces: studies in pedestrian streets in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Ambient. constr. [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.1, pp. 167-183. ISSN 1678-8621.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1678-86212012000100003.

This paper presents the results of a study on the thermal comfort in open urban spaces, undertaken in pedestrian streets located in the three towns, Campinas, Baurú, and Presidente Prudente, in the state of Sao Paulo. The study was developed as part of a more extensive project on thermal comfort in different kinds of open public spaces in Brazil. The methodology involved monitoring the microclimatic variables (air and globe temperature, humidity, air velocity and global solar radiation), and structured interviews, in order to assess the actual thermal comfort through the Actual Sensation Vote (ASV) and the personal users' variables. The Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) was also calculated. The results show different limits for neutral temperature in each city: 20-29ºC for Campinas, 21-30 ºC for Bauru and 14-24 ºC for Presidente Prudente). However, 59.5% of the total sample (308 out of 519 individuals) indicated comfort limits ranging from 18 to 26 ºC, which is consistent with the limits proposed by Monteiro and Alucci for the city of Sao Paulo. These results can contribute to evaluate the thermal quality of other public spaces in the same towns.

Palavras-chave : Open urban space; Thermal comfort; Pedestrian spaces.