Abstract
This study aims to examine the impact of planting strategies on improving thermal comfort in relation to the existing buildings within real high-rise residential complexes. Using numerical simulation via ENVI-met, we compare six planting scenarios characterized by two locational schemes—open-space planting and building-vicinity planting—and three tree quantities. The results highlight the importance of planting greater numbers of trees, and also of their locations, to moderate the thermal environment. The findings of the study demonstrated that increasing the number of trees in the open space by threefold of the advisory guidelines led to a significant reduction in the average air temperature by 0.87 °C, mean radiant temperature (MRT) by 11.00 °C, physiological equivalent temperature (PET) by 4.50 °C, and wind speed by 0.30 m/s. Planting the minimum number of trees under building-vicinity reduced air temperature by 0.07 °C, MRT by 2.48 °C, and PET by 0.92 °C, while showing a slight increase in wind speed of approximately 0.01 m/s. To achieve improvements in both thermal condition and air flow, we suggest planting rows of trees parallel to the prevailing wind direction in the ventilation corridors at some distance from buildings, to minimize overlap of shade from trees and from buildings. The findings of this study will provide useful guidelines for effective planting design in dense residential areas.
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The data generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available for legal/ethical reasons but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was conducted with the support of the Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through its Urban Ecological Health Promotion Technology Development Project, and funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (2020002770003); Creative-Pioneering Researchers Program through Seoul National University, Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2021S1A3A2A01087370).
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Conceptualization, Yeongeun Jin and Heeyeun Yoon; methodology, Yeongeun Jin and Heeyeun Yoon; formal analysis, Yeongeun Jin; investigation, Yeongeun Jin; writing—original draft preparation, Yeongeun Jin; writing—review and editing, Heeyeun Yoon; supervision, Heeyeun Yoon; funding acquisition, Heeyeun Yoon. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Jin, Y., Yoon, H. Evaluating planting strategies for outdoor thermal comfort in high-rise residential complexes: a computational fluid dynamics simulation study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 88641–88663 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28526-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28526-5