As climate change brings more heat waves, creating cooler cities has become a major challenge for urban planners. Researchers from CONICET have tackled this issue by developing a digital tool that helps predict how city planning can affect air temperature.
This tool, named FORMA3T, is currently used in Mendoza, Argentina, where summer temps often hit over 30°C. It’s free to access and estimates outdoor temperatures in neighborhoods by analyzing specific urban factors.
Some of the variables it considers include street width, building height, and plot orientation. The idea is to help planners create spaces that are cooler and more comfortable for residents.
Belén Sosa, a researcher at CONICET, explains that FORMA3T offers instant calculations of air temperatures, providing maximum, minimum, and average values for different urban designs. This allows a quick assessment of how changes can impact thermal comfort in neighborhoods.
More than 500 urban simulations help drive the tool, using data from the software ENVI-met. These simulations analyze how adjustments in urban greenery, street orientation, and width can affect temperatures.
To ensure accuracy, the simulations are based on real measurements, making it easy for anyone without technical skills to use the tool. “We wanted to distill years of research into a simple platform,” Sosa noted.
The insights from FORMA3T show that preserving urban greenery is vital. Sosa emphasizes the importance of maintaining tree canopies, saying, “Homogeneous implementation of greenery is key.” Other important factors include:
- Street Width: Narrow streets (16-20 meters) help provide shade, cooling the area.
- Urban Orientation: Avoid west-facing buildings that trap heat.
- Building Height: Taller buildings can block airflow and shade.
- Lot Distribution: This impacts neighborhood ventilation and microclimates.
Sosa points out that west-facing facades absorb heat all day, making outdoor spaces hotter. Adjusting building angles could help keep areas cooler.
Evaluating urban heat is essential, and FORMA3T’s models have a precision exceeding 85%, with minimum temperature predictions surpassing 90%. Understanding the effects of urban heat islands is crucial, especially since hotter nights drive up air conditioning use, further heating the environment.
Érica Correa, another researcher at CONICET, highlights that the tool operates fully online. Users simply enter basic data, and it quickly returns estimated air temperatures for their neighborhoods.
Supported by the Municipality of Mendoza and funded by the Green Fund, FORMA3T mainly focuses on low-density neighborhoods right now but plans to extend to medium and high-density areas in the future. “We want to scale the tool to cover more urban settings,” says Sosa.
This innovative approach to urban design could significantly enhance livability in cities, making them not just cooler, but also more sustainable and comfortable for their residents.
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