A proposal of urban coastal pattern for improving pedestrian wind comfort in coastal cities

Abstract

High-speed wind flow in urban areas poses a risk of pedestrian wind discomfort. Coastal cities, particularly, are at risk of wind discomfort as they are exposed to strong sea breezes. To improve the wind climate in coastal cities, we redesigned a standard coastal urban fabric by placing a new building at its center. Then we investigated the effect of critical variables, the central building’s location ( x/L ratio) and dimensions ( height, width, length) on wind conditions with a parametric design approach based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method validated by experimental data. We found that an optimum combination of x/L ratio and central building height ( H) can reduce the corner and double corner effect between two parallel buildings by up to 45% and minimize the risk of wind discomfort. The findings can be applied to newly-designed coastal settlements where wind shelter is required and can help urban policymakers and designers.