Multiscale urban design based on the optimization of the wind and thermal environments: A case study of the core area of Suzhou Science and Technology City

Abstract

New methods are need to coordinate the conflicting spatial demands through urban design research and strategies from the perspective of multi-scale urban climate analysis. To integrate wind-thermal environment with urban design, we propose three scale levels, namely the district-superblock, superblock-block, and block-building levels, and divide the urban design elements into voids and solids. Thereafter, we establish a multiscale methodological framework in which the urban design contents are clarified by each scale, and the information transmitted between scales is obtained to ensure consistent value propositions and strategic approaches. The microclimate shaping of the urban open space is transformed into guiding strategies and quantitative indicators of the spatial form of the solid space. Information is transmitted between the scales through the wind-thermal indicators of windward side and the morphological indicators of solid space. Subsequently, the methodology was applied to the project in the core area of Suzhou Science and Technology City, and the findings preliminarily verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the methodology. This research influences urban climate studies and urban design practice in three ways: 1) improving understanding of the correlation between scales; 2) facilitating interaction between the two domains; and 3) providing tools for urban design practices.

Keywords

Multiscale transmission / Wind-thermal environment optimization / Urban design strategy / Urban form

References

[1] Acero, J.A., Kupski, S., Arrizabalaga, J., 2015. Urban climate multiscale modelling in Bilbao (Spain): a review. In: Symposium "Toward Integrated Modelling of Urban Systems.

[2] Ali-Toudert, F., Mayer, H., 2006. Numerical study on the effects of aspect ratio and orientation of an urban street canyon on outdoor thermal comfort in hot and dry climate. Build. Environ. (2), 41

[3] Allen, T.F.H. Starr, T.B., 1982. Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, United States.

[4] Bourbia, F., Boucheriba, F., 2010. Impact of street design on urban microclimate for semiarid climate (Constantine). Renew. Energy 35, 343- 347.

[5] Caniggia, G. Maffei, G.L., 1979. Composizione architettonica e tipologia edilizia 1: lettura dell’edilizia di base. Marsilio, Venice.

[6] Carvalho, G., Silva, L., 2023. The microclimate implications of urban form applying computer simulation: systematic literature review. Environ. Dev. Sustain. 1-40.

[7] Chalermwat, T. Jelena, S. Chen, Q., 2001. Natural ventilation design for houses in Thailand. Energy Build. 33 (8), 815-824.

[8] China Meteorological Administration, 2018. Specifications for Climatic Feasibility Demonstration-Urban Ventilation Corridor. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China.

[9] Conzen, M.R.G., 1960. Alnwick, Northumberland: a Study in Town-Plan Analysis, 27. Institute of British Geographers Publication, London. George Philip.

[10] Eliasson, I., 2000. The use of climate knowledge in urban planning. Landsc. Urban Plann. 48, 31-44.

[11] Erell, E., Williamson, T., 2007. Intra-urban differences in canopy layer air temperature at amid-latitude city. Int. J. Climatol. 27, 1243- 1255.

[12] Erell, E. Pearlmutter, D. Williamson, T., 2010. Urban Microclimate: Designing the Spaces between Buildings, first ed. Earthscan, London, UK; Washington, DC, USA.

[13] Feng, X., 2010. Study of the environmental effects of urban green space and wind. Chinese Landscape Architecture 2, 82- 85.

[14] Ge, X. Han, D., 2020. Sustainability-oriented configurational analysis of the street network of China’s superblocks: beyond Marshall’s model. Front Archit. Res. 9 (4), 858-871.

[15] Han, D., Gu, Z., Wu, G., 2019. Study of methods of designing public buildings of climatic adaptability centered around spatial form. Architectural Journal 4, 78- 84.

[16] He, Y. Abel, T. Nyuk, H.W., 2019. A parametric study of angular road patterns on pedestrian ventilation in high-density urban areas. Build. Environ. 151, 251-267.

[17] Hua, L., Sun, F., Chen, J., Tang, L., 2020. Quantifying the coolisland effects of urban parks using Landsat-8 imagery in a coastal city, Xiamen, China. Acta Ecol. Sin. 40 (22), 8147- 8157.

[18] Ichinose, T., Ashie, Y., Hirano, Y., Kono, T., 2003. The High Resolution Numerical Model Of Heat Island Phenomena, 115. CGER’s Supercomputer Activity Report.

[19] Jesus, L. Victoria, P.L.C. Renaldi, R. Eduardo, D.M. Carlos, R.G. Carmen, G.M., 2022. Integrating courtyard microclimate in building performance to mitigate extreme urban heat impacts. Sustain. Cities Soc. 78, 103590.

[20] Johansson, E., 2006. Influence of urban geometry on outdoor thermal comfort in a hot dry climate: a study in Fez, Morocco. Build. Environ. 41, 1326- 1338.

[21] John, P., Chen, F., James, P., 2017. Diversity and scale in superblock design. Urban Des 13, 30- 41.

[22] Jonathan, N., Thomas, A., 2020. Beyond nearly zero energy urban design: a holistic microclimatic energy and environmental quality evaluation workflow. Sustain. Cities Soc. 56, 102094

[23] Kamal, A. Abidi, S.M.H. Mahfouz, A. Kadam, S. Rahman, A. Hassan, I.G. Wang, L.L., 2021. Impact of urban morphology on urban microclimate and building energy loads. Energy Build. 253, 111499.

[24] Knoch, K., 1951. Uber das Wesen einer Landesklimaaufnahme. Meteorol. Z. 5, 173

[25] Kress, R., 1979. Reginoale Luftaustauschprozesse und ihre Bedeutung fuer die Rae umliche planung. Institut fur Umw eltschutz der Universitat Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany.

[26] Kropf, K., 2014. Ambiguity in the definition of built form. Urban Morphol. 18, 41-57.

[27] Landeschauptstadt, Muenchen, 2005. Evaluierung Messestadt Riem. Nachhaltige stadtentwicklung in münchen. Ergebnisband. https://orlis.difu.de/items/3e9656b7-cffa-4c34-818f-8b4a204e9d58.

[28] Li, A., 2017a. Research on the Wind Environment on the Central Harbin Based on the Theory of Roughness. Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. PhD Thesis.

[29] Li, T., 2017b. Research on the Construction and Planning of Urban Ventilation Based on Urban Morphology and Surface Roughness - A Case Study of Shenzhen, China. University of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China. PhD Thesis.

[30] Liang, J. Sun, H., 2007. Pattern and Mechanism: the Urban Transformation of the City Centers in China. China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing, China.

[31] Lin, P., Lau, S.S.Y., Qin, H., Gou, Z., 2017. Effects of urban planning indicators on urban heat island: a case study of pocket parks in high-rise high density environment. Landsc. Urban Plann. 168, 48- 60.

[32] Liu, S., Xie, Z., Song, D., 2018. Urban climate issues solving oriented urban design approaches in contemporary Germany: a case study of Stuttgart of 21 project. N. Archit. 5, 144- 149.

[33] Liu, W. Zhang, G. Jiang, Y. Wang, J., 2021. Effective range and driving factors of the urban ventilation corridor effect on urban thermal comfort at unified scale with multisource data. Rem. Sens. 13, 1783.

[34] Maing, M., 2022. Superblock transformation in Seoul Megacity: effects of block densification on urban ventilation patterns. Landsc. Urban Plann. 222, 104401.

[35] Martin, L., March, L. (Eds.), 1972. Urban Space and Structures. Cambridge University Press, UK.

[36] Meaden, G.T., Kochev, S., Kolendowicz, L., Kosa-Kiss, A., Marcinoniene, I., Sioutas, M., Tooming, H., Tyrrell, J., 2007. Comparing the theoretical versions of the Beaufort scale, the TScale and the Fujita scale. Atmos. Res. 83 (2-4) , 446- 449.

[37] Mills, G. Cleugh, H. Emmanuel, R. Endlicher, W. Erell, E. Mcgranahan, G. Ng, E. Nickson, A. Rosenthal, J. Steemers, K., 2010. Climate information for improved planning and management of mega cities (needs perspective). Procedia Environmental Sciences 1, 228-246.

[38] Moudon, A.V., 2019. Introducing supergrids, superblocks, areas, networks, and levels to urban morphological analyses. Iconarp International J. of Architecture and Planning. 7, 01- 14.

[39] Moudon, A.V., 2022. Urban Morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field. Urban Morphol. 1, 3-10.

[40] Oke, T.R., 1984. Methods in urban climatology, applied climatology. Zurcher Geographische Schrifen 14, 19- 29.

[41] Oke, T.R., 1988. Street design and urban canopy layer climate. Energy Build. 11, 103-113.

[42] Page, J.K., 1968. The fundamental problems of building climatology considered from the point of view of decision-making by the architect and urban designer. In: Symposium on Urban Climates and Building Climatology. Brussels, Belgium.

[43] Peng, C., Zou, Z., Hong, L., Pan, Q., 2016. Numerical simulation of wind and thermal environment in inner cities and strategies of partial renewal: a case study of Dazhimen, Wuhan. City Plan. Rev. 40 (8), 16- 24.

[44] Petralli, M., Massetti, L., Brandani, G., Orlandini, S., 2014. Urban planning indicators: useful tools to measure the effect of urbanization and vegetation on summer air temperatures. Int. J. Climatol. 34, 1236- 1244.

[45] Priyadarsini, R., Wong, N.H., 2005. Parametric studies on urban geometry, air flow and temperature. Int. J. Archit. Sci. 6, 114- 132.

[46] Qi, Q. Meng, Q. Dong, L. Ren, P., 2021. Discussion on the way of combining between urban planning and thermal environment. Journal of Human Settlements in West China 3, 46-56.

[47] Quinten, V., 2020. Automated water surface temperature retrieval from Landsat 8/TIRS. Remote Sens. Environ. 237, 111518.

[48] Ratti, C. Raydan, D. Steemers, K., 2003. Building form and environmental performance: archetypes, analysis and an arid climate. Energy Build. 35 (1), 49-59. ISSN 0378-7788.

[49] Ren, C., 2016. Urban Ventilation Assessment and Wind Corridor Plan: Creating Breathing Cities. China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing, China.

[50] Ramponi, R. Blocken, B. Laura, B. Janssen, W.D., 2015. CFD simulation of outdoor ventilation of generic urban configurations with different urban densities and equal and unequal street widths. Build. Environ. 92, 152-166.

[51] Sarma, A.A.L.N., 2005. Scales of climate. In: Oliver, J.E. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht..

[52] Shane, D., 2014. Block, Superblock and Megablock, a Short History.

[53] Shen, X. Liu, H. Yang, X. Zhou, X. An, J. Yan, D., 2024. A datamining-based novel approach to analyze the impact of the characteristics of urban ventilation corridors on cooling effect. Buildings (accepted have not published).

[54] Shi, H., 2012. Study on Urban Ventilation Network Model Based on the Flow Characteristics of the Roads in Shenzhen. PhD Thesis. University of Chongqing, Chongqing, China.

[55] Spronken-Smith, R.A. Oke, T.R., 1998. The thermal regime of urban parks in two cities with different summer climates. International Journal of Remote Sensing - INT J REMOTE SENS 19, 2085-2104.

[56] Stewart, I.D. Oke, T.R., 2012. Local climate zones for urban temperature studies. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 93, 1879-1900.

[57] Taleghani, M. Kleerekoper, L. Tenpierik, M. Dobbelsteen, A., 2015. Outdoor thermal comfort within five different Urban forms in The Netherlands. Build. Environ. 83, 65-78.

[58] Whitehand, J.W.R., 1981. Conzenian ideas; extension and development. In: Whitehand, J.W.R. (Ed.), The Urban Landscape: Historical Development and Management. Academic Press, London, pp. 127-152.

[59] Xu, F. Gao, Z. Zhang, J. Hu, Y. Ding, W., 2022. Influence of typical street-side public building morphologies on the ventilation performance of streets and squares. Build. Environ. 221, 109331.

[60] Yamada, T., Koike, K., 2011. Downscaling mesoscale meteorological models for computational wind engineering applications. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerod. 99 (4), 199- 216.

[61] Yang, F., Lau, S.S.Y., Qian, F., 2010. Summertime heat island intensities in three high-rise housing quarters in inner-city Shanghai China: building layout, density and greenery. Build. Environ. 45, 115- 134.

[62] Zhang, Y., 2021. Research on Evaluation Methods of Urban Morphology Related to Wind-Heat Environment: A Case Study of Guangzhou. PhD Thesis. South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2024 2024 The Author(s). Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.

审图号：GS京（2024）1430号