Theme/Relevant Ministry:

CLIMATE CHANGE/ ENERGY:
M/o Climate Change; M/o Power; AEDB

Project Brief:

The study investigates the effects of urban design elements i.e. street canyon geometry (Canyon length, width, height, orientation, and SVF) and greenery on the urban microclimate using remote sensing and computational fluid dynamics-based techniques. The important conclusion derived from the current research can be used by designers for climate-responsive urban design in case of the future extension of these cities.  The important results of the current research are: a) LCZ based LULC classification of the twin cities revealed that the residential area of Islamabad mostly consists of open low-rise buildings. Whereas Rawalpindi residential area is dominated by compact low-rise infrastructure; b) Being highly urbanized regions, most of the urban areas in twin cities are associated with high LST; and c) According to the regression analysis result, canyon height, width, length have a significant inverse correlation with  LST for both cities. This implies that increasing the values of these parameters will bring a prominent cooling effect. The skyview factor is has a significant positive correlation with LST in both cities. So by decreasing skyview factors either by (i) introducing the deep street canyons or (i) increasing the greenery inside the wide canyon will reduce the LST intensity inside these street canyons.

Public Policy Relevance:

The incessant rise in global temperature and environmental degradation is a serious trial to humanity. The situation is even worse in urban sprawls where population explosion and migration fever add more fuel to the fire. The proposed study primarily focuses on the development of a framework for the climate responsive urban design (CRUD) that will be a guide to find the most optimal orientations of streets considering solar gain and wind directions.

Status:
COMPLETED 100%

Final Research Report, Policy Brief and Journal article can be downloaded from the link: https://pide.org.pk/rasta/publications-cgp-1-0/