Open Urban Studies and Demography Journal

2015, 1 : 1-12
Published online 2015 January 22. DOI: 10.2174/2352631901401010001
Publisher ID: OUSDJ-1-1

RESEARCH ARTICLE
 Recent Trends and Remaining Limitations in Urban Microclimate Models

Manmeet Singh and Debra F. Laefer, *
Landscape, and Civil Engineering University, College Dublin Phillips Building, School of Architecture, Room G25 Belfield Dublin 4, Ireland

* Address correspondence to this author at the Landscape, and Civil Engineering University, College Dublin Phillips Building, School of Architecture, Room G25 Belfield Dublin 4, Ireland; Tel: 353-1-716-3226; E-mail: debra.laefer@ucd.ie

ABSTRACT

Problems such as natural ventilation, pollutant dispersion, changes in wind environments, and urban heat islands are gaining increasing prominence in both public concern and research. In response, urban microclimate modelling researchers are continually striving to develop new strategies to rapidly and inexpensively generate more accurate results. Numerical modelling is a common way to address these concerns. However, to generate realistic results requires significant investment in model creation, especially with respect to the detail to which a model is populated. This paper provides an overview about this and other recent trends within the research community by considering nearly 100 recent papers. Findings show that despite more computational capacity there has not been a major trend towards increasing the model complexity to obtain more realistic results.

Keywords:

Air quality, comprehensive turbulent aerosol dynamics and gas chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, environmental justice, microclimate, perceptual fidelity, urban heat island, wind environment.