Abstract
Knowledge of how the mean radiant temperature (T mrt ) is affected by factors such as location, climate and urban setting contributes to the practice of climate sensitive planning. This paper examines how T mrt varies within an urban setting and how it is influenced by cloudiness. In addition, variations of T mrt in three high latitude cities are investigated in order to analyse the impact of geographical context and climate conditions. Results showed large spatial variations between sunlit and shaded areas during clear weather conditions, with the highest values of T mrt close to sunlit walls and the lowest values in the areas shaded by buildings and vegetation. As cloudiness increases, the spatial pattern is altered and the differences are reduced. The highest T mrt under cloudy conditions is instead found in open areas where the proportion of shortwave diffuse radiation from the sky vault is high. A regional comparison between three Swedish coastal cities showed that T mrt during summer is similar regardless of latitudinal location. On the other hand, large differences in T mrt during winter were found. Shadows, both from buildings and vegetation are the most effective measure to reduce extreme values of T mrt . However, extensive areas of shadow are usually not desired within outdoor urban environments at high latitude cities. One solution is to create diverse outdoor urban spaces in terms of shadow and also ventilation. This would provide individuals with access to a choice of thermal environments which they can use to assist their thermal regulation, based on personal needs and desires.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ASHRAE (2001) ASHRAE fundamentals handbook 2001 (SI Edition). American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, USA
Bowler DE, Buyung-Ali L, Knight TM, Pullin AS (2010) Urban greening to cool towns and cities: a systematic review of the empirical evidence. Landsc Urban Plann 97(3):147–155
Bruse M, Fleer H (1998) Simulating surface-plant-air interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model. Environ Model Softw 13(3–4):373–384
Erell E (2012) Effect of high-albedo materials on pedestrian thermal comfort in urban canyons. In: International Conference on Urban Climate, Dublin
Höppe P (1992) A new procedure to determine the mean radiant temperature outdoors. Wetter und Leben 44:147–151
IPCC (2007) AR4 synthesis report. Full report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf. Accessed 15 February 2012
Konarska J, Larsson A, Lindberg F, Holmer B, Thorsson S (2012) Transmissivity of direct solar radiation through the crowns of single urban trees. In: The 8th International Conference on Urban Climate, Dublin, Ireland
Lindberg F (2005) Towards the use of local governmental 3-D data within urban climatology studies. Mapping Image Sci 2:32–37
Lindberg F (2012) The SOLWEIG-model. http://www.gvc.gu.se/Forskning/klimat/stadsklimat/gucg/software/solweig/. Accessed 12 February 2012. Gothenburg University, Sweden
Lindberg F, Grimmond CSB (2010) Continuous sky view factor maps from high resolution urban digital elevation models. Clim Res 42:177–183. doi:10.3354/cr00882
Lindberg F, Grimmond CSB (2011a) The influence of vegetation and building morphology on shadow patterns and mean radiant temperatures in urban areas: model development and evaluation. Theor Appl Climatol 105(3–4):311–323. doi:10.1007/s00704-010-0382-8
Lindberg F, Grimmond CSB (2011b) Nature of vegetation and building morphology characteristics across a city: influence on shadow patterns and mean radiant temperatures in London. Urban Ecosyst 14(4):617–634. doi:10.1007/s11252-011-0184-5
Lindberg F, Holmer B, Thorsson S (2008) SOLWEIG 1.0—Modelling spatial variations of 3D radiant fluxes and mean radiant temperature in complex urban settings. Int J Biometeorol 52(7):697–713. doi:10.1007/s00484-008-0162-7
Loridan T, Grimmond CSB (2012) Characterization of energy flux partitioning in urban environments: links with surface seasonal properties. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 51(2):219–241. doi:10.1175/jamc-d-11-038.1
Matzarakis A, Rutz F, Mayer H (2009) Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments: basics of the RayMan model. Int J Biometeorol 54(2):131–139
Mayer H, Höppe P (1987) Thermal comfort of man in different urban environments. Theor Appl Climatol 38:43–49
Mayer H, Holst J, Dostal P, Imbery F, Schindler D (2008) Human thermal comfort in summer within an urban street canyon in Central Europe. Meteorol Z 17(3):241–250. doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2008/0285
McArthur LJB, Hay JE (1981) A technique for mapping the distribution of diffuse solar radiation over the Sky hemisphere. J Appl Meteorol 20(4):421–429
McCarthy MP, Best MJ, Betts RA (2010) Climate change in cities due to global warming and urban effects. Geophys Res Lett 37(9):L09705. doi:10.1029/2010gl042845
Meehl GA, Tebaldi C (2004) More intense, more frequent, and longer lasting heat waves in the 21st century. Science 305(5686):994–997. doi:10.1126/science.1098704
Mochida A, Lun IYF (2008) Prediction of wind environment and thermal comfort at pedestrian level in urban area. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 96(10–11):1498–1527. doi:10.1016/j.jweia.2008.02.033
Nikolopoulou N, Baker N, Steemers K (1999) Improvements to the globe thermometer for outdoor use. Archit Sci Rev 42:27–34
Pascal M, Laaidi K, Ledrans M, Baffert E, Caserio-Schönemann C, Le Tertre A, Manach J, Medina S, Rudant J, Empereur-Bissonnet P (2006) France’s heat health watch warning system. Int J Biometeorol 50(3):144–153
Perez R, Seals R, Michalsky J (1993) All-weather model for sky luminance distribution—preliminary configuration and validation. Sol Energ 50(3):235–245. doi:10.1016/0038-092x(93)90017-i
Picot X (2004) Thermal comfort in urban spaces: impact of vegetation growth—case study: Piazza Della Scienza, Milan, Italy. Energ Build 36(4):329–334. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2004.01.044
Reindl DT, Beckman WA, Duffie JA (1990) Diffuse fraction correlation. Sol Energ 45(1):1–7
Shashua-Bar L, Pearlmutter D, Erell E (2011) The influence of trees and grass on outdoor thermal comfort in a hot-arid environment. Int J Climatol 31(10):1498–1506. doi:10.1002/joc.2177
Sjöman H, Busse Nielsen A (2010) Selecting trees for urban paved sites in Scandinavia—a review of information on stress tolerance and its relation to the requirements of tree planners. Urban For Urban Green 9(4):281–293. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2010.04.001
Thorsson S, Lindqvist M, Lindqvist S (2004) Thermal bioclimatic conditions and patterns of behaviour in an urban park in Goteborg, Sweden. Int J Biometeorol 48(3):149–156
Thorsson S, Lindberg F, Eliasson I, Holmer B (2007) Different methods for estimating the mean radiant temperature in an outdoor urban setting. Int J Climatol 27(14):1983–1993. doi:10.1002/joc.1537
Thorsson S, Lindberg F, Bjorklund J, Holmer B, Rayner D (2011) Potential changes in outdoor thermal comfort conditions in Gothenburg, Sweden due to climate change: the influence of urban geometry. Int J Climatol 31(2):324–335. doi:10.1002/joc.2231
Thorsson S, Rocklöv J, Rayner D, Konarska J, Lindberg F, Holmer B (2012) Mean radiant temperature—a measure for evaluating the impact of climate(change) on health. The 8th International Conference on Urban Climate, Dublin, Ireland
Acknowledgements
This work is financially supported by FORMAS—the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning within the European Commission programme Urban-Net.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lindberg, F., Holmer, B., Thorsson, S. et al. Characteristics of the mean radiant temperature in high latitude cities—implications for sensitive climate planning applications. Int J Biometeorol 58, 613–627 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0638-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0638-y