Analysis of Comfort and Thermal User-Perception in Open Urban Spaces of Hot and Humid Regions; a Case Study of Bandar Abbas City, Iran

The quality of urban spaces is affected by the citizens' sense of thermal comfort, in addition to the components of architecture and urban planning. The feeling of thermal comfort is affected by biological, psychological and climatic. To investigate the effect of users' presence in urban spaces, which is the main purpose of this study, we must first identify the variables affecting thermal comfort and then analyze them.

This study examines the thermal comfort in urban open spaces in Bandar Abbas. The analysis and evaluation of quantitative climatic data on the one hand and the evaluation of perception and quantitative climatic data on the other hand, shape the research process and the method. A questionnaire was used to achieve thermal comfort condition of people. Surveys were conducted over a fourteen-day period in summer and winter of 2020. Climatic variables were monitored simultaneously with interviews and questionnaires.

In examining climatic data and their relationship to subjective sensation of high temperature, this study confirms the significant effect of personal variables (age and clothing) and climate variables (thermal sensation, wind and solar radiation). It also showed an acceptable outdoor temperature range using the Ta index with a neutral air temperature of 29.1°C for the warm season and 24.5°C for the cold season.

Wind is the main factor of comfort in urban space. Finally, considering the acceptable outdoor temperature range, this study obtained a neutral air velocity (VA) with a neutral air velocity of 0.5m/s for the warm season and 0.13m/s for the cold season.