Adaptation to climate change and thermal comfort

Abstract

International negotiations on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions turn out to be ineffective more and more, which means that global warming is not very likely to be stopped in a manageable period of time. Therefore adaptation to climate change increasingly becomes an important topic in planning and decision-making. While the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a global topic, adaptation to climate change is an issue that necessarily needs consideration of local peculiarities. This research contributes to an understanding of thermal comfort, which is characterized by a strong spatial variation on a local level and therefore deserves an in-depth analysis within a framework of case studies. In general, this study seeks to create a repository of adaptation and mitigation strategies, out of Iranian traditional urbanism and adaptation activities performed in the Ruhr area. Since these strategies were mostly too broad to be covered in a single research, much delimitation had to be performed. Eventually two main groups of strategies emerged: One that focused on the thermal comfort situation of pedestrians and the second group that was dedicated to energy. Naturally, these two groups constitute the pillars of this research. This study, also seeks to explore the applicability of such strategies to the Iranian contemporary cities, particularly those with hot and dry climate around the central Iranian desert. To investigate the effects of the alterations in the urban fabric on the pedestrian thermal comfort, microclimate simulations are performed. Several factors of the built environment, such as the existence of balconies and urban vegetation, are introduced and their impact on the local microclimate is examined. Eventually, out of many possible scenarios performed, an optimized setting is extracted and studied for verification. Concerning the energy section, a cost-benefit analysis is performed to investigate the financial feasibility of the adoption of renewable energies in the current context of Iran. The results reveal that unless there is a massive change in the structure of governmental funding and investments in the renewable energy sector, it will not be affordable to the general public. The outcome of this research is a set of suggestions to be incorporated into the Iranian urban design codes, both on local and regional scales that will facilitate a climate conscious urban development based on scientific facts and evidences.