Street Geometry Factors Influencing Outdoor Pedestrian Thermal Comfort in a Historic District

As China’s urbanization progresses, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has become more pronounced, impacting the health of residents and the activity intentions of visitors within historic urban areas. This study focuses on the historic district of the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys Tourist Area (SFQX) in Fuzhou, where simulations were conducted on four representative streets across various times during a typical summer meteorological day. Typological methods were employed to simplify neighborhood modeling, and Phoenics software was utilized to simulate the neighborhood’s wind environment and the outdoor pedestrian thermal comfort index. Aspect ratio (AR), sky view factor (SVF), air velocity (Va), and universal thermal climate index (UTCI) values at specific locations were collected for statistical analysis. The findings reveal that: (1) the N–S orientation exhibits more significant correlations between Va, the UTCI, and street geometry compared to the E–W orientation; (2) the relationship between SVF and the UTCI fluctuates with time; (3) areas with higher AR values, such as medium and deep canyons, offer better thermal comfort for outdoor pedestrians; and (4) at 8:00, the UTCI and wind speed show minimal correlations with street geometry and direction, being predominantly influenced by objective climatic factors. These insights are expected to significantly inform the geometric design and planning of streets in Fuzhou’s historic districts, aiming to create more comfortable outdoor environments for inhabitants and visitors alike.

This creative work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license which allows copying, and redistribution as well as adaptation of the original work provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and the conditions of the license are met.