Assessing outdoor thermal comfort in a waterfront development: the case of Waterfront City, Dbayeh

Abstract

With the increase in the urban world population, the need for sustainable cities has become crucial, and comfortable and livable open spaces are an important aspect for this purpose. However, since open spaces are affected by the urban design of an area, their quality depends on the priorities of the stakeholders and decision makers, and thus might be compromised to the advantage of other needs, such as prioritizing profit over the public good. The thesis addresses comfort in open spaces, specifically within waterfront developments because many growing cities are coastal and thus, have witnessed major developments on their waterfront. More precisely, the aim of the thesis is to explore the different parameters of outdoor comfort and to assess one of these parameters, which is thermal comfort, in a selected case study, the Waterfront City, Dbayeh, Lebanon. The literature review identifies the different parameters of comfort with a focus on thermal comfort, its influencing factors, and its methods of assessment. Then, a quantitative methodology is defined, presenting the three steps needed to perform the assessment. The first step is to analyze the site, mainly climatically and morphologically, in order to define a sample of open spaces to be studied in a selected sample of instances, the second to model and simulate the microclimate using RayMan software, and the third to analyze the results and assess outdoor thermal comfort according to the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) to deduce optimal layouts that enhance thermal comfort. These steps are applied in the Waterfront City, and recommendations are proposed for enhancing uncomfortable areas in the existing and in the future unbuilt parts of the development, as well as in any future similar waterfront development.