Impact assessment of the introduction of a city master plan for Vinh city, Vietnam on future thermal environment in the urban districts

Abstract

In this study, future projections of the thermal environment in the urban districts in Vinh city, Vietnam were performed by a regional atmospheric model, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, combined with a pseudo global warming method. The target period was a month of June (hottest month) in the 2030s. A city master plan for the city which targets the year of 2030 with a population of 900,000 and covers an area of approximately 250 km2 was introduced in the future projections, and the impact of the introduction of the proposed plan on the future thermal environment (air temperature and heat stress index) in the urban districts was assessed. Moreover, two modified city master plans by changing the arrangement (northern or southern concentration) of the new urban districts were introduced, and the effects of the modifications on the future thermal environment in the urban districts were also investigated.