Assessment of daytime outdoor comfort levels in and outside the urban area of Glasgow, UK

To understand thermal preferences and to define a preliminary outdoor comfort range for the local population of Glasgow, UK, an extensive series of measurements and surveys was carried out during 19 monitoring campaigns from winter through summer 2011 at six different monitoring points in pedestrian areas of downtown Glasgow. For data collection, a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station equipped with temperature and humidity sensors, cup anemometer with wind vane, silicon pyranometer and globe thermometer was employed. Predictions of the outdoor thermal index PET (physiologically equivalent temperature) correlated closely to the actual thermal votes of respondents. Using concurrent measurements from a second Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station placed in a rural setting approximately 15 km from the urban area, comparisons were drawn with regard to daytime thermal comfort levels and urban–rural temperature differences (¿Tu-r) for the various sites. The urban sites exhibited a consistent lower level of thermal discomfort during daytime. No discernible effect of urban form attributes in terms of the sky-view factor were observed on ¿Tu-r or on the relative difference of the adjusted predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD*).