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Vegetation as a potential tool for improving thermal comfort and exposure to solar radiation in the streets of Quito: Comparative analysis of two streets in the center of the city

Abstract:

Generating walkable cities is a major stake for urban areas and the transformation of public open spaces, as streets, is a key process for it. Solar radiation exposure may be an important parameter for comfort of public spaces users. In the case of Quito, radiation levels are so high all years long this parameter is a strong health issue. While street refurbishment based on pedestrians and bikers’ requirements is still not a common practice in Ecuador, the present work proposes an approach of doing so based on simulating with ENVIMET two similar streets of Quito’s centre against thermal comfort and hence indirectly radiation exposure, one being highly vegetated and the other not. Simulations evaluate the energy exchange between street components considering their thermal characteristics, indicating the potential satisfaction level of pedestrians. The influence of street vegetation, especially the presence of large covering trees, is demonstrated as being strong. It allowed to propose an improvement process for the comfort deficient street, thus offering a potential larger solution for Quito’s streets configuration.