On 27 February 2024, the 2-Day Science Workshop “Microclimate Studies and Methods” began at Royal University of Phnom Penh organized by Build4People Work Package #5 “Urban Climate”.
During the first section of the first day the WP#5 members from INKEK gave an introduction to microclimate studies. They started by explaining about the Urban Climate Map (UCM) and the mesoclimate as data input / background knowledge for understanding the microclimate. Thereby, they highlighted the importance to scales in terms of planning, administrative unit and climate. This was followed by an introduction to thermal comfort and PET (physiological equivalent temperature) which relates to microclimate parameters. Finally, examples of micro climate design strategies to increase outdoor thermal comfort were given as well as examples of PET measuring, modelling and interviewing.
The second section dealt with methods of microclimate modelling by means of the software ENVIMET. It was shown how to model an urban area / neighbourhood with buildings, roads, vegetation, and water infrastructure as well as the effects of building materials, radiation, and albedo.
The third section dealt with microclimate measurements. The participating students got introduced to measurement devices such WBGT to measure windspeed, air temperature, globe temperature, and surface temperature. Furthermore, students got explained how to note down the measurement results and how to interview people regarding thermal comfort.
During the second day, on 28th February 2024, field measurements took place at Borey Okide in Sangkat Ou Baek K’am, Saen Sokh District, see picture of survey area below.
INKEK previously modeled the area of the field measurements. The figure below shows that PET is generally high in the area of the field measurement, however, there are differences depending on street width, density of buildings or vegetation. To validate the previously modeled PET in the area, students were asked to measure parameters which will be needed later for calculating PET.
Additionally, further results show merely any temperature differences between the simulation and the measured air temperature on 27 February, which proofs the accuracy of the model.
The microclimate measurements and the thermal comfort survey were conducted for the whole day from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Borey Okide in Sangkat Ou Baek K’am, Khan Sen Sok, Phnom Penh. The measurements and the survey were conducted in different roads and different block corners of the whole area to observe changes in air and surface temperature to calculate the PET and analyse the thermal comfort.
The next steps will be data checking and further analysis that will calculate mean radiant temperature and PET based on our measurements. The final empirical results will be introduced during another workshop together with Build4People WP#2 “Sustainable Building probably in the second half of 2024.
More info on this workshop has been published at our event page.