Table 4.
Summary of studies investigating the cooling effect predicted in computer simulations.
| Ref | Location (Köppen and Geiger Climatic classification, Kottek et al., 2006) | Month | Simulated Factor | Simulated Item | Purpose | Methods/Instruments | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ng et al. (2012) | Hong Kong, China (Cfa) | May 9 | different greenery percentages around high rise buildings | Green space within the city center with high building density | Establishing a compact site in the center consisting of mixed commercial and residential buildings |
|
Greening and more significantly tree planting must be positioned nearer to the area where human activities are concentrated |
| Skelhorn et al. (2014) | Manchester, UK (Cfb) | July 13 | Five study areas with retail, office, and residential buildings surrounded by UGS | Vegetation, mature trees and new trees | Indicating the impact of greenspace types on temperature, and assessing the utility of ENVI-met in cooling effect |
|
UGS elements like mature trees have impact on the mitigation of high temperatures. On the other hand, asphalt has a significant negative effect |
| Lin and Lin (2016) | Taipei, Taiwan (Cfa) | July 2 | Evaluation of 8 park spatial arrangement scenarios | simulating differing greenery percentages | Characterizing the influence of the spatial arrangement of urban parks on local temperature reduction. |
|
A larger total park area, a greater number of parks, a greater area of the largest park, more evenly distributed park spaces, and more park diversity lead to more dramatic outdoor cooling effects |
| Middel et al. (2015) | Phoenix, USA (Bwh) | June 23 | Eight simulation scenarios for the neighborhood | varying tree canopy cover, from 0% to 30% using a mix of native and non-native trees | Quantifying the thermal impact of two heat mitigation aspects: urban forestry, cool roof initiatives. |
|
Increased tree coverage reduces air temperatures, but the magnitude of this impact, even with a 25% tree canopy cover, may not be sufficient to offset increased temperatures due to climate change. |
| Vidrih and Medved (2013) | Ljubljana, Slovenia (Cfb) | July | One urban park | Simulating different scenarios in 140m *140m area | Investigating the impact of the density and size (age) of trees, air temperatures and wind velocities on UGS |
|
The park cooling effect was determined according to local conditions on the surface of park elements on a selected extreme summer days. |