A Greening Strategy of Mitigation of the Thermal Environment for Coastal Sloping Urban Space

Abstract

Greening can usually have a cooling effect on urban space; but is this law also applicable to coastal sloping urban space? The coastal urban space of Qingdao Haizhifeng Square, with a sloping topography, was the area we selected to study. The study area contained two parts: a coastal green space and a residential area. ENVI-met was used to create six scenarios. Different lawns, black pine and ash were planted in the two areas to study the cooling effect. The results showed that the closer the area was to the sea, the better the thermal comfort. In both the coastal green area and the residential area, trees increased the PET of the site, and the higher the LAI of the trees, the more obvious the thermal effect. At 15:00, the hottest time during the summer, the highest PET at pedestrian height was lowest in the scenario without trees, reaching 28.3 °C, and the highest was with full ash, reaching 34.3 °C. At the same time, the average difference in PET between the two scenarios was 1.4 °C. The highest PET at pedestrian height was generated in the area of the building away from the sea breeze, especially in the case of the sloping topography behind it or dense street trees on the urban road. Finally, it was concluded that, in urban spaces with a coastal slope topography, lawns should be planted in the coastal green part and low LAI trees in residential areas, and shade trees should not be planted on the coastal walkway. This afforestation strategy can provide a basis to formulate a strategy for promoting the design of regions with similar geographical and climatic conditions in the future.