The Relation between Outdoor Microclimate and People Flow in Historic City Context the Case Study of Bologna within the ROCK Project

Abstract

Life quality in urban contexts is related to several interconnected factors. Lots of innovative technologies allow for the gathering of real-time information, which is helpful for analysing and interpreting significant urban dynamics and citizens’ behaviours. The presence of people in outdoor environments, particularly for social and recreational purposes, can be considered as a qualitative indicator, giving evidence of a living environment. The relationship between urban areas and the climate context has been addressed in recent years by the scientific literature. However, these studies did not report the direct correlation between people’s presence and outdoor thermal comfort in outdoor spaces. The aim of this paper is to assess whether the presence of people in outdoor public spaces, detected through human presence sensors, can be associated with outdoor microclimatic conditions (both with on-site measurement and software simulation) and outdoor thermal comfort indicators (as physiological equivalent temperature). The question is whether there exists a direct correlation between outdoor microclimate in public spaces and people’s presence, and if a public event plays a role in changing it. The research compares on-site measurements of physics variables (e.g., air temperature) and people’s presence with outdoor microclimate maps by Envi-met. The case study, carried out in the framework of the H2020 project ROCK—Regeneration and Optimization of Cultural Heritage in Creative and Knowledge cities, focuses on two squares located in Bologna’s historic city center. The conclusions show that public events are the main deciding factor influencing square crowding; nevertheless, the study reveals a relationship between thermal comfort and the number of people.