The Impact of Vegetation on Thermal Performance

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of vegetation in modifying outdoor temperature around a single-family house in a hot and humid tropical climate. The climatic parameters, house location, and physical characteristics of landscape design are measured and surveyed. The focus of this study is on the impact of trees and different types of foliage on the thermal environment of the houses.  The main findings are that heavily landscape around single-family houses can potentially slow heat build-up by shading, evapotranspiration, and wind channelling by as much as 4°C.Keywords: Single-family house, thermal performance, landscape design, evapotranspirationeISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i11.110