ASSESSMENT OF BIOCLIMATIC COMFORT ZONES USING THE RAYMAN MODEL: A CASE STUDY OF SULAIMANI – IRAQ

This study is done to retrieve bioclimatic comfort zones for outdoor recreation planning in Sulaimani province, Iraq. Spatial distribution of Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), which is a measure of bioclimatic comfort, was retrieved for the city of Sulaimani using meteorological data. The air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed data were employed for the calculation of PET. Data recorded at 15:00 obtained from 7 meteorological stations over the period from 1992-2015 were used to calculate monthly PET with the Rayman model. PET was spatially interpolated using IDW tool in ArcGIS 10.2 to convert point-data consisting of PET for each individual meteorological station into a continuous surface. Therefore, spatial distribution maps of PET for outdoor recreation activities were created after analyzing these maps. The results revealed that the lowest PET determined was around 4.8°C in Penjwin area during January while the highest PET determined was 59.6°C in northeast of Sulaimani, Halabja during July. On the other hand, the results also revealed that Sulaimani city, Dukan and Penjwin area are founded to be more suitable for tourism especially during summer months compare to others within Sulaimani Province. We sincerely hope that the final results of this study may be used by recreation authorities in Sulaimani in the near future.