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Effects of the Urban Form on the External Thermal Comfort in Low-Income Settlements of Guayaquil, Ecuador

Abstract:

In the present work, the effects of urban morphology on the external microclimatic conditions and its incidence on the thermal comfort level were determined in one of the most important low-income settlements in Guayaquil, Ecuador. For this purpose, one sector of the Socio Vivienda II urbanization were morphologically characterized. The virtual modeling of the physical environment of the urbanization was carried out through simulation programs, in order to obtain microclimatic data at different times of the year and hours of the day. Data were obtained as temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and sky view factor. Variables were taken into consideration: solar orientation, distances between buildings, building heights, among others. The comfort conditions of the thermal environment were quantified in terms of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature index (PET), calculated through the RayMan model, which made it possible to identify relationships between the climatic and morphological variables of the urban configuration.