Effects of a Green Space Layout on the Outdoor Thermal Environment at the Neighborhood Level

This study attempted to address the existing urban design needs and computer-aided thermal engineering and explore the optimal green space layout to obtain an acceptable thermal environment at the neighborhood scale through a series of building energy and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The building-energy analysis software eQUEST and weather database TMY2 were adopted to analyze the electric energy consumed by air conditioners and the analysis results were incorporated to derive the heat dissipated from air conditioners. Then, the PHOENICS CFD software was used to analyze how the green space layout influences outdoor thermal environment based on the heat dissipated from air conditioners and the solar heat reemitted from the built surfaces. The results show that a green space located in the center of this investigated area and at the far side of the downstream of a summer monsoon is the recommended layout. The layouts, with green space in the center, can decrease the highest temperature by 0.36 degrees C.