How Can Street Interface Morphology Effect Pedestrian Thermal Comfort:A Case Study of the Old Town of Changsha, China

The challenge of the urban thermal environment is a pivotal obstacle in improving urban living conditions. Delving into the nexus between street interface morphology and the thermal environment carries practical implications. Therefore, this study directs its focus toward examining street interface morphology. We employ ENVI-met software for the simulation and analysis of the thermal environment. The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) serves as the yardstick for evaluating thermal conditions, elucidating the influence of street interface morphology on the summer thermal environment of streets. The findings unveil a discernible correlation: for east-west streets, diminished interface density and concavity, coupled with an augmented street aspect ratio and interface height dislocation, yield superior street thermal comfort, with the nadir of thermal comfort occurring at an interface height ratio of 1. In the case of north-south streets, heightened interface density and street aspect ratio, juxtaposed with diminished interface concavity and height dislocation, parallelly yield enhanced thermal comfort. Optimal thermal comfort materializes when the interface height ratio equals 1. The outcomes of the optimization simulation of select streets affirm the efficacy of street interface shape transformations in efficaciously augmenting the summer thermal environment of urban streets.