Re-composing Physical Form with Energy-Based Resilience Approach to Improve Thermal Comfort (Case Study: Sadra New Town)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sahar Akbari 1
Mahsa Sholeh 2
Sahand Lotfi 2
1 M. Sc. in Urban Design, Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
2 Associate Professor، Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
10.22034/usd.2024.2010493.1123
Abstract
Today, the rapid growth of urbanization and the increasing trend of greenhouse gas emissions, which continue to increase despite international efforts, have aggravated the climate change issue. Reaching an approach that balances the natural and built environment is one of the most essential human objectives in forming a favorable environment. To achieve such a goal, planning and designing cities in line with the principles of climate design is the primary and most crucial concern in this field of activity. The proposed criteria will encourage the process of becoming more energy resilient by planning a holistic approach to various and complex aspects of cities and looking at cities as dynamic complex systems in each urban functional area. Urban resilience refers to the ability of an urban system and all the social, environmental, and technical networks that make it up, in time and space scales, to maintain or quickly return to the intended function in the face of disruption, to adapt to rapid change and transformation of systems that limit current or future adaptive capacity. In the field of urban energy, resilience is inevitably linked to the concept of sustainability. However, the new towns planned in Iran to respond to the problems of the greater mother city at the level of metropolitan areas have not sufficiently considered the climatic conditions and local characteristics in the design. Therefore, according to the necessity of strategies to reduce energy consumption in the increasing trend of climate change, this research aims to investigate and analyze urban physical form design principles with an energy-based resilience approach to improve Thermal Comfort in Sadra New Town on the northwestern edge of Shiraz, the capital of Fars province. For this purpose, library studies and quantitative measurement using ENVI-met sub-climatic analysis software have followed the descriptive-analytical research method. In the first step, energy resilience criteria based on global energy resilience rating systems and theoretical research conducted, including smart location, resources and energy, transportation and use, neighborhood form and development pattern, and placemaking, were identified as five layers. Then, after designing the main structure of a sample neighborhood in Sadra according to the explained criteria for the physical form and energy-based resilient design and the physical and climatic analysis of the site, a series of selected points were simulated in Envimet software for which the thermal comfort index or the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) was extracted in the hottest month of the year. The evaluation result showed that no part of the neighborhood is in the optimal temperature range. In other words, the area needs help in terms of the thermal comfort of pedestrians in the summer season during the hot hours of the day. Finally, design guidelines and regulations were presented on a smaller scale by measuring the plan’s deviation from thermal comfort standards compared to the physical design, sky visibility factor, and other climatic indicators. The outcome of this research is to re-composing physical form with an energy-based resilience approach in an urban neighborhood, presenting strategies and policies that are extensible to new developments.

Keywords

Subjects

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Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Volume 5, Issue 15
Spring 2024
Pages 1-20