Índice ambiental urbano (IAU): uma contribuição ao estudo do planejamento e do conforto térmico em espaços abertos

Abstract

The main issues associated with the research proposal is the city density impact on urban climate. Some of these problems have been minimized with the use of several urban scale strategies addressed for the specialized literature, as well as can be approached through prospective methods from previous local climatic data and microscale models. The microclimate study and urban thermal comfort requires understanding how these concepts relate with the city form. This research contributes to the discussion about urban thermal comfort with emphasis on the open spaces user, aiming to elaborate a numerical index in order to define the best relationship between environmental variables, urban morphology and urban thermal comfort in the city of João Pessoa/PB, located in hot and humid climate and low latitude. The values of the environmental variables were acquired through previous surveys with measurements in loco in open urban spaces. Morphological study was carried out by means of relevant urban indicators from a Geographic Information System (GIS) model. Data were treated through spatial distribution and multivariate analysis. Thermal comfort analysis in open spaces was performed by Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) with the ENVI-met© program. Artificial intelligence (RNA) was used to estimate the PET index values and the microclimatic variables at the urban level. Finally, a numerical index was elaborated through multivariate analysis, in particular principal component analysis (PCA). Index was applied in several points at João Pessoa/PB city, as well as in future scenarios constructed from the data acquisition by the microclimatic variables prediction. Results demonstrate which the urban points didn’t allow comfort sensation during the studied period. Index shows a distance of an adequate relationship between morphological and environmental variables allowing thermal discomfort to user when it is applied in this areas. The application this research helps the decision of choicing the best relationship between urban prescriptions and thermal comfort of outdoor users.