Greenery as a Mitigation Strategy for Pedestrian Level Wind Condition in Urban Areas; Case Study: Iman Street in Tabriz

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of vegetation in reducing nuisance wind speed on the Imam Street sidewalk. Imam Street is one of the main arteries in Tabriz, and the nuisance wind speed on its sidewalks disturbs the climate comfort for pedestrians, especially during the cold season.

A descriptive-analytical method is used in this study, and numerical simulations are performed using Dlubal RWIND 2.02 to evaluate the wind flow for the current condition and the proposed alternatives. In this context, the effect of vegetation height, spacing and arrangement (with tree bench) as independent variables on wind speed at pedestrian height as dependent variable was investigated. Spearman correlation test is used to evaluate the relationship between variables.

The studies have shown that trees with a height of 4 meters, distributed at a distance of 5 meters according to the pattern 1, can reduce the flow velocity on the pedestrian level by 52%.

The results show that the implementation of vegetation in appropriate spacing and pattern can significantly reduce wind speed. Placing tree benches on the sidewalk changes the airflow toward the street and reduces wind speed at the pedestrian level.