Assessment of Role of Water Body on Thermal Comfort in Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

Increasing urbanization at rapid pace is definitely reducing the green cover and ultimately increases the urban temperature. The side cause of this elevated temperature at city centre compared to the suburbs and rural areas (Urban Heat Island) is enhancement of human thermal discomfort at the outdoor spaces and may even cause death due to heat stroke. This factor becomes a key role for urban planners and designers to create safe and pleasant spaces to live, work and commute. Several research works has been done to assess the role of green cover in reducing the UHI intensity and improve the thermal comfort, but less shade has been given on the cooling potential of urban water bodies. This work tries to investigate the effectiveness of Kankaria lake (Ahmedabad, India) that may have in cooling its nearby places (<500 m) and also on assessing outdoor thermal comfort using an index PET. Simultaneous ground measurement were taken around Kankaria lake at 4 selected locations on 10 minute interval starting from 14:00 to 16:30 in month of October for 7 days. Microclimatic parameters like air temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, globe temperature and mean radiant temperature were measured using hand-held devices. Results indicate that the western side of Kankaria Lake observed drop in 0.2°C compared to the eastern side. Whereas, PET showed drop in maximum of 1.44°C on the western side, but it was still under the stress condition as per PET scale for sub-tropical climate zone.