Impact of climate change on outdoor thermal comfort in cities in United States

Abstract

Since urban open spaces provide various benefits to the citizens, it is necessary to improve the outdoor thermal comfort in urban open spaces. However, global warming increases heat stress and at the same time decrease cold stress of outdoor spaces. The final impact of climate change on outdoor thermal comfort is not evident, and depends on the climate characteristics. This study investigated the influence of climate change on outdoor thermal comfort conditions of five selected cities (Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Miami, and Las Vegas) with distinctive climate patterns in the United States. It is found that all cities suffered from deterioration in thermal comfort. This is because the increases in the heat stress rate were greater than the decreases in cold stress rate. In the 2080s, the greatest reduction in acceptable thermal stress rate happened in Miami from 44.7% to 21.3% under high emission scenario.