Assessment of the potential of green wall on modification of local urban microclimate in humid tropical climate using ENVI-met model

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2023

Department

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Abstract

This study assesses the effectiveness of the green walls for the modification of urban microclimate in different seasons of an urban academic campus in a humid tropical climate using the ENVI-met model. The hourly variation of the surface and ambient air temperatures of locations with differing underlying surfaces, such as asphalt (ASP), interlocked tiles (ILT), interlocked tiles with vegetation cover (ILTV) and open ground (OG) show significant variability implying the significance of shading effects. The ambient air temperature above the ILTV surface shows relatively lower temperatures during the winter (0.2–1.4 °C) and summer seasons (0.1–0.5 °C), compared to other substrates. Besides, the ambient air temperature above the ILTV surface during the afternoon hours (14:00–16:00 h) shows the maximum difference (compared to other surfaces) during the winter (1.3–3.1 °C) and summer seasons (0.8–2.1 °C). The results of the ENVI-met simulations indicate that the implementation of green wall building morphology could significantly reduce the ambient air temperature during winter (1.3–1.6 °C) as well as summer seasons (0.4–0.5 °C), but with differing intensities. Moreover, the green walls exhibit a maximum reduction of the ambient air temperature by 1.9 °C during the winter and by 0.8 °C during the summer. Although the results underscore the potential of green walls to reduce the ambient air temperature in a humid tropical climate, the study demonstrates the concerns associated with the choice of plant species in humid tropical climates with significant seasonality.

Publication Title

Ecological Engineering

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