Urban Parks: Tools to keep you Cool

To address the Urban Heat Island effect, FCL researchers use a three-dimensional urban microclimate model using OpenFOAM software to show how urban parks provide a cooling effect of 1°C on air temperatures.

Urban Parks: Tools to keep you Cool

Cities like Singapore experience the Urban Heat Island effect, where the air temperature is higher in urban compared to rural areas. With climate change causing increased temperatures worldwide, urban planners and designers are looking to quantify the potential cooling influence of urban parks.

A two-year study looked at Spottiswoode Park and its surroundings in Singapore to develop fully-integrated, three-dimensional urban microclimate model implemented in OpenFOAM. Dr Muhammad Omer Mughal, Dr Simone Fatichi, Dr Naika Meili, Prof. em. Peter Edwards, Prof. Paolo Burlando and their co-authors studied the movement of heat in the surrounding air and how it is stored in the urban area at the park. This research was conducted as part of the Ecosystem Services in Urban Landscapes module in the second phase of Future Cities Laboratory. 

The analysis showed that, in the urban park, given an incoming wind speed of 2.3 m/s, there will be 1 °C cooling effect downwind of the park for 27 metres. This reduces to 0.6 °C, at 117 metres from the park. Overall, the Universal Thermal Comfort Index (UTCI) shows a reduction in thermal stress in and around the park.

Their work, external page Detailed investigation of vegetation effects on microclimate by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban environment, is published in Urban Climate, 39, and may provide design and structural strategies for parks urban areas.
 

Mughal, M.O., Kubilay, A., Fatichi, S., Meili, N., Carmeliet, J., Edwards, P. and Burlando, P., 2021. Detailed investigation of vegetation effects on microclimate by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban environment. Urban Climate, 39, p.100939. external page https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939