Thermal comfort in open public spaces: recently inaugurated, Praça do Centenário, in Presidente Prudente - SP

• Grant number: 18/21875-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Architecture and Urbanism Technology
• Principal Investigator: Carolina Lotufo Bueno Bartholomei
• Grantee: Rafaela de Lima Vieira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Open public spaces serve their users as places of stay or passage, and generally constitute squares, public gardens, parks, streets and sidewalks. The quality of these spaces is determined, among other factors, by the existing thermal comfort, influenced its use and permanence. The comfort conditions are related not only to bioclimatic variables, but also to the perception of heat and to the phenomenon of psychological adaptation of those who frequent the place. Considering these variables, the presence of vegetative mass also plays a fundamental role in the improvement of the ambient thermal sensation. The afforestation, through the promotion of shade and the realization of evapotranspiration, controls the direct incidence of solar radiation and the heat gain, providing a smoother thermal sensation, thus increasing the environmental quality of public spaces due to its presence. In the meantime, the study aims to qualitatively identify the thermal comfort present in the newly constructed and inaugurated, Centennial Square, in Presidente Prudente - SP, taking into account the importance of the existing vegetation in the place. The present research was carried out through the monitoring of climatic conditions (air temperature, globe temperature, relative air humidity, air velocity, solar radiation), and also the use of questionnaires to verify the users' thermal sensation of the centenary square, thus verifying the actual thermal comfort (questionnaires) and the calculated thermal comfort (predictive comfort indexes in external spaces), and making it possible, at the end, to compare the obtained data and the relation between the conditions of subjective and objective comfort.