8. Urban Microclimate Spatiotemporal Mapping: A Method to Evaluate Thermal Comfort Availability in Urban Ecosystems

Attractive urban space is fundamental for creating safe and healthy cities. In the context of the climate crisis, microclimate becomes a determining factor for the use of public space in pursuing a just and equal society. Shifting to non-motorized modes of individual transport has manifold effects on the quality of urban environments in terms of safety, health, and spatial justice. Considering the need for quantifying microclimatic conditions in urban space, this chapter presents a methodology applied to a case study in the Boston Back Bay Area that develops a factor to indicate spatiotemporal outdoor comfort availability. The factor is based on a simulation workflow that generates datasets and maps, to be employed to quantify outdoor comfort availability at the pedestrian level with a high spatiotemporal resolution in adaptive spatial domains. The maps can be employed to compare different scenarios and neighbourhoods, and can serve as a base to put into evidence the influence of comfort and to formulate indications to increase outdoor thermal comfort in urban ecosystems. For promoting a tangible improvement of the city, pleasant environmental conditions are fundamental to accommodate pedestrian flows and to facilitate the implementation of social justice and public health.