International Journal of Engineering and Technology

The aim of this study is to investigate how the air temperature is affected by the urban design and how it can be modified to improve the thermal comfort in the city of Rome. The physical and geometrical properties of the buildings and the presence of green areas have a large impact on the urban climate and on thermal conditions of the people who use open spaces; it is obvious how the role of a urban planner is important to reduce the thermal stress and to design comfortable outdoor spaces for humans. In this study, several numerical simulations using ENVI-met have been performed to evaluate the impact of urban morphology on the microclimate within a city center in summer. Although some very hot conditions were recorded, there were evident examples of more acceptable comfort conditions and cooling potential for some orientations and degrees of urban compactness due to the clustered form with green cool islands and wind flow through the main canyons. Some design guidance on how to form urban passive cooling systems is presented.