Abstract
Urban climate modelling and simulations are crucial in the field of human biometeorology in order to assess human thermal comfort within urban environments. The microscale models RayMan and SkyHelios are presented and applied for a study area to show the possibilities and advantages of three-dimensional vector-based modelling for human thermal comfort analysis. The principles of human biometeorology for thermal comfort assessment: mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), and other thermal indices are presented. These parameters are further analyzed to show the spatial effects of shading and wind speed on Tmrt and PET by urban obstacles (e.g., buildings) and vegetation. In addition to that, results with high temporal resolution of several factors and parameters are shown for a location of interest within the study area. Results show that the RayMan model can be best applied for the analysis of thermal comfort at specific points within a model domain, but for long meteorological datasets. The SkyHelios model on the contrary is most suitable for spatial analysis of thermal comfort for large areas like urban districts and in high spatial resolution of, e.g., 1 m.
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Matzarakis, A., Gangwisch, M., Fröhlich, D. (2021). RayMan and SkyHelios Model. In: Palme, M., Salvati, A. (eds) Urban Microclimate Modelling for Comfort and Energy Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65421-4_16
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