Urban Spatial Form Optimization Strategies Based on the Principle of Climate Adaptability of Regional Architecture: A Case Study of Traditional Cave Dwelling Villages in Northern Shaanxi Province

A multitude of climate-adaptive design approaches are embedded in regional architecture,which have a positive impact on addressing the deformed development of urban spatial patterns and the dual challenges of climate and resources.This paper examines the principles of climate adaptability embedded in the site layout and spatial organization characteristics of traditional cave dwelling villages in northern Shaanxi Province.The extracted climate adaptability principles are summarized,and the resulting design strategies that are well-suited to the contemporary urban space form are presented.Through analysis,it can be observed that traditional cave dwelling villages in northern Shaanxi are predominantly situated on south-facing slopes in proximity to water at low altitudes.These villages are characterized by compact building groups and east-west development,which is constrained by the elements of mountains and rivers.A two-level street system is generated,comprising streets parallel to the contour line and roadways perpendicular to the contour line.This results in the formation of a courtyard form enclosed by mountains.Such site layout and spatial organization exhibit excellent climate adaptability with regard to heat,ventilation,and wind storage.In light of the aforementioned considerations,the following urban spatial form design strategies are put forth:①the topographic height difference can be exploited to obtain sufficient sunshine;②the group shape can be optimized in order to reduce building energy consumption;③the best orientation of the building can be chosen to take account of both winter and summer conditions;④the height and length can be combined in order to form natural masking;⑤the D/H ratio of streets and roadways should be controlled to achieve a balance between heat gain and cooling of groups;⑥vents should be set appropriately to optimize group ventilation;⑦climate buffers should be established to increase the level of climate response.

Renovation of Outdoor Environment in Old Residential Communities Suitable for the Elderly against the Background of Population Aging

More old residential communities have become unsuitable for the elderly because of the aging of outdoor physical environment and functional degradation. This paper investigated behaviors and mental activities of the elderly, problems of outdoor environment in old residential communities, and proposed strategies for the renovation of old residential communities from the perspectives of outdoor environment, road, greening and public supporting facilities according to demands of the elderly on outdoor environment, so as to provide them a comfortable and reasonable outdoor environment.

The Influence of Environmental Stimuli upon the Human Body in Summer

Green building practices benefit many users because it imposes less of a burden both on people and the environment and plays a central role in achieving a sustainable lifestyle. Covering rooftops with tall evergreen trees increases evaporation and reduces energy consumption by heating and air conditioning systems. Japan has a cereal-crop culinary culture and rice cultivation is a primary activity. According to the Biophilia Hypothesis exposure to a lush greenery environment conducive to survival facilitates more effective relaxation and recovery from fatigue than simple elimination of stress. The impact of rice paddies is not only about reduction of energy consumption, but also about mitigating the urban environment and its physiological and psychological effects on the human body. Focusing on the spread of the rice canopy and exposure of water surfaces, clarified the reaction of the human body to thermal sensory perception and outdoor thermal environments, and the correlation between them. Rice fields where the rice canopy was smaller, and where ample standing water surfaces received short wavelength solar radiation, have a high heat capacity, which works to increase the longwave length thermal radiation in the time period when the accumulated amount of short wavelength solar radiation increases. Meanwhile, where the spread of the rice canopy was greater, and the surface of the standing irrigation water covered with rice plants, a mitigation effect on the outdoor thermal environment evaluation index of ETFe (enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature) through reduction of long wavelength thermal radiation came into play, and it became clear that thermal sensory perception improved through visual stimuli that engendered images of humidity. The purpose of this study was to clarify the environmental mitigation effect of rice fields in an urban environment. In addition to the physical environmental mitigation effect, it was also shown that rice fields engendered a psychological environmental mitigation effect through visual stimuli in the form of natural ground surfaces such as green spaces.

Evidence-based Landscape Design of University Campus:Relationship Between Characteristics of Outdoor Environments and Actual Uses of Students

Several studies have shown a positive relationship between high quality outdoor environments and users’health.Education of agricultural professionals also demands high quality outdoor environments in order to promote students’wellbeing,which in turn supports scientific researches.This study analyzed relationship between students’actual uses and campus outdoor environments,identified what environmental characteristics that students prefered,how they used and why they participated in the outdoor activities.The results could be used as guidance of campus design and management.Investigation of three universities in Harbin provided 686 valid questionnaires.The results suggested that health awareness effectively promoted students’use frequencies of outdoor environments.Environment with"natural"and"cultural"characteristics,especially undulating landform,vibrant plants and landmarks in a serpentins design style attracted more uses.Female students showed more preferences on social interaction activities than males.Students who had good economic consumption levels and participated in outdoor activities frequntly in childhood prefered to join all the kinds of activities after university enrollment.

Outdoor thermal environmental research of the mountainous city by GIS

The study of urban outdoor thermal environment was carried out in one of the mountainous cities by using geography information system(GIS) technique which is connected with predicting and evaluating models for the outdoor thermal environment, monitoring data and simulating data. A prediction and evaluation system were set up. A typical mountainous city, i.e., Yunyang city in Chongqing in China, was taken as an example, its urbanization trend and population growth was predicted and evaluated. The heat island intensity and its trend were simulated, the temperature field, velocity field and the humidity field were analyzed. The results show that GIS is an effective tool to deal with the outdoor thermal environment, especially for the mountainous cities with special geographical particularities. GIS can be used in the environmental management and the city planning especially for the mountainous cities.

Heart of Landscape and Contribution of Building Environment: Discussions about Landscape Construction of Outdoor Environment Water Circulation System

Recently, the increasing concern about the environmental quality of human settlements makes people realize that the attractive environment given by natural ecology also deficiently needs the feedback and protection of nature in some forms so that the natural ecology can be endlessly cycled on its own. Taking the project of German Enterprise Center in Qingdao Sino-German Ecopark as an example, this paper discussed construction of outdoor environment water circulation system using the landscape building method.

Promotion and Renewal of the Outdoor Environment of the Collective Housing That Promotes Health <br/>—Based on the Post-Epidemic Perspective

The COVID-19 is a major global health event that has changed people’s lives and behaviors. As a fragile and sensitive area with high population density and poor living conditions in the city, collective housing is also an important construction area for future urban renewal. In the process of the spread of the new crown epidemic, the collective housing has exposed a series of weaknesses such as difficult community management, inconvenience of life, and insufficient outdoor space. Therefore, the update and transformation of the outdoor environment of the collective housing combined with the concept of public health is a problem that must be considered at present. This article combines the practice of renewal and transformation of the X community in Chaoyang District, Beijing, combined with survey methods such as questionnaires, interviews, and observations, combined with the needs of residents and the practical experience of the grassroots management unit, and carried out an overall renewal design of the external space environment of the collective housing. The epidemic is combined with the division of functional layout, refined design of outdoor activity space to ensure safe distance, and increased shared smart facilities to improve the quality of the outdoor environment of collective residences and strengthen community resilience;to achieve communication and sharing, epidemic prevention and control on the basis of ensuring safe social distance outdoor sports and other functions. In this way, the ability of collective housing to prevent, identify, and dispose of urban risks will be improved, and will provide residents with a better and livable community life.

Outdoor Corrosion Performance Study of Selected Construction Materials in Bonny Island

Corrosion studies are important due to the enormous cost involved in the replacement of materials in all kinds of applications. The outdoor study on corrosion behavior of aluminum sheet, chequered aluminum plate and zinc alloys roofing sheet commonly used as construction material within a highly industrial settlement were examined using the gravimetric technique. The outdoor corrosion of these alloys at different sites was observed via its exposure to atmospheric conditions, monitored and recorded for 12 months at an interval of 2 months. Results depicted a process spanning the initial and intermediate stages of corrosion. The samples of construction materials at Bonny island showed substantial weight losses and rate of corrosion which varied largely on percentage of atmospheric humidity, salt precipitations, industrial aerosols and corrosive gases present at the exposure site as well as the nature of the material and the presence of protective coating formed during corrosion process. The rapid rate of deterioration of these materials causes severe economic importance on the indigenes’ activities including the oil and gas industries and other construction companies on the island. Thus, there is urgent need for research concerned with methods to control or prevent excessive deterioration of metals in Bonny Island.

Optimal design of vegetation in residential district with numerical simulation and field experiment

Vegetation plays a key role in improving wind environment of residential districts,and is helpful for creating a comfortable and beautiful living environment.The optimal design of vegetation for wind environment improvement in winter was investigated by carrying out field experiments in Heqingyuan residential area in Beijing,and after that,numerical simulation with SPOTE(simulation platform for outdoor thermal environment) experiments for outdoor thermal environment of vegetation was adopted for comparison.The conclusions were summarized as follows:1) By comparing the experimental data with simulation results,it could be concluded that the wind field simulated was consistent with the actual wind field,and the flow distribution impacted by vegetation could be accurately reflected;2) The wind velocity with vegetation was lower than that without vegetation,and the wind velocity was reduced by 46%;3) By adjusting arrangement and types of vegetation in the regions with excessively large wind velocity,the pedestrian-level wind velocity could be obviously improved through the simulation and comparison.

Human Behavior in Downtown Public Spaces during Cooling Periods in Winter Cities

There is an urban design problem that outdoor public spaces are not used for long periods of time within a year due to coldness and snow cover in cities with severe winter climates （winter cities）. Therefore, an urban design that promotes activities in these spaces is required for winter cities. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between outdoor environmental conditions and the behaviors of people in outdoor public spaces. This six-month study conducted a field survey in six kinds of public spaces in downtown Sapporo and analyzed the changes of microclimates and sitting behaviors in these spaces. The analysis revealed that sitting behaviors decreased with temperature drops during the cooling period （20 ~C-8 ~C）, that sunlight could suppress the reduction in the number of sitting behaviors, and that wind speed could suppress the reduction in the duration of sitting behaviors.

Prediction model of the radiation from ground surface to the occupant in outdoor space

The outdoor ground radiation including the emitted radiation and reflected radiation plays an important role in the outdoor thermal environment. In this paper, based on the hypothesis of that the occupant body can be equivalent to a human cylinder and the outdoor ground surface is diffusive for radiation, a mathematical model is advanced to describe the radiation from the ground surface to the occupant. Through theoretical analysis of the mathematical model, general formulas for calculating the radiation arriving at the occupant from an annular ground surface and infinite ground surface are obtained. It shows that, the radiation from ground surface to the occupant depends on the surface temperature, reflectivity and emissivity, the arrange within the radius of 8.0m encircling the occupant can be defined as the dominant radiating area which radiates 90% radiation to the occupant. The radiative potentials of different pavement surface such grass, asphalt concrete surface, granite slab surface, terracotta bricks, colored concrete interlocking blocks are also compared with the datum measured by Tan Slew-Ann and Fwa Tien-Fang in Singapore, it shows that, in the summer sunny day, grass surface radiates more radiation in the morning but less in the afternoon than other pavement materials. Finally, discussions of reducing the radiation of outdoor ground surface are presented and main conclusions are drawn for improving the outdoor thermal environment.

Field measurements on microclimate in residential community in Guangzhou,China

Taking a certain housing in Guangzhou as an example,we conduct the field measurement of the microclimate at fixed points for air temperature,relative humidity,black globe temperature and wind speed,etc.We investigate the effects of manmade lake,shade of trees and ground surface character on outdoor thermal environment,and make a quantitative analysis on the weighting position of the landscape design factors in design behavior.The study intends to explore a method to improve the thermal environment of residential quarters by changing the corresponding factors.

Indoor and outdoor particle concentration distributions of a typical meeting room during haze and clear-sky days

Air quality has increasingly been a great concern all over the world,and the good command of indoor and outdoor air qualities is of