The impact of vegetation in urban microclimates and thermal comfort as a function of soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions

Abstract

This study is part of an investigation of the impact of vegetation on urban microclimates, under the canopy, as a function of soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions. The aim of this study was: (1) to quantify the impact of vegetation based on microclimatic measurements (2) using the predictive model ENVI-met 3.1 to simulate the microclimatic effect of vegetation with different characteristics; (3) impact on human comfort with the application of external comfort index TEP - Temperature of Equivalent Perception. The method is inductive, with field measurements at Tenente Siqueira Campos Park (Trianon), in the city of São Paulo, for monitoring microclimatic data with two meteorological stations inside the park and for the survey of data from fixed stations outside the park, besides canopy and soil variables; and deductive, after calibration between measured and simulated data by ENVI-met 3.1 model and simulations of the same scenario, varying the characteristics of the canopy. Two indirect non-destructive methods were used to estimate the leaf area index (LAI): with LAI-2000 equipment and post-processing of hemispheric photos. Among all measured and simulated variables, the values for mean radiant temperature are the most impacted under the canopy of the tree vegetation, directly influencing thermal comfort.

Keywords:
Urban vegetation; Urban microclimate; Leaf area index; ENVI-met