Thermal comfort and patterns of behaviour in outdoor urban places—examples from Göteborg, Sweden

After creating large-scale bioclimatic maps with the aid of GIS we have studied how people use park areas with respect to effects of the thermal environment. This paper therefore seeks to determine the relationship between the thermal environment, park use and behavioural patterns in an urban area of Sweden. The methods used include structured interwiews, unobstrusive observations of naturally occuring behaviour and simultaneous measurements of thermal comfort variables, i.e., air temperature, air humidity, wind speed and global radiation. The thermal environment is investigated using the mean radiant temperature and the the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index.The outcome is compared to the subjective behaviour and thermal sensation of the interviewees.

It is found that the thermal environment, access and design are important factors in the use of the park. In order to continue to use the park when the thermal conditions become too cold or too hot for comfort, people improve their comfort conditions by modifying their closing and by choosing the most supportive thermal opportunities available within the place. The study also shows that physiological aspects such as time of exposure, expectations, experience and perceived control may influence the subjective assessment. Comparation between the thermal sensation of the interviewees and the thermal sensation assessed by the PMV index indicates that steady-state models such as the PMV index may not be appropriate for the short term outdoor thermal comfort assessment, mainly due to their disability to analyse transient exposure.