Outdoor Public Spaces with Better Microclimate Condition A Case study in Amanieh Ahvaz

In new urban design approaches paying attention to the quality of public urban spaces and make into consideration the human relationships and activities in the design process is one of the important aims toward green architecture. In the cities with unpleasant weather, preparing tolerable microclimate in outdoor public urban spaces is the first precedence of design.This article presents the results of a field study research that was done in the subject of thermal condition in outdoor public spaces of Amanieh region in Ahvaz city. Ahvaz in south Khoozestan in Iran is one of the cities with unpleasant hot and semi humid climate. This research is focusing on the time and period of unpleasant thermal conditions in the summer of 2010. The research has been done base on: 1) meteorological station data of Ahvaz, 2) field study data collected by the portable Kestrel personal weather station, 3) occupants’ activities and behaviour in those periods. Comparing the collected data with outdoor thermal indices such as Perceived Temperature (PT), Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), Temperature Humidity Index (THI), Heat Index (HI), Humidex and Tropical Summer Index, will give a prediction of the thermal condition of the urban microclimate of Ahvaz in Summer time. Analysing occupants’ reaction to hot conditions and the personal strategies they used to adapt to unpleasant thermal conditions will help to propose flexible and practical principles for outdoor climatic design. These principles are based on design strategies for using renewable energy such as wind and solar radiation that help to achieve a tolerable thermal microclimate in the public spaces of Ahvaz.

Keywords:

microclimate , urban public space , outdoor thermal indices , Ahvaz