---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
_id: '22474'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: In light of globally increasing temperatures, accentuated in cities by the
    urban heat island effect, urban planners and designers are looking for new, quantitative
    methods to assess the performance of their designs in terms of ecosystem services
    provided by vegetation. Among these ecosystem services, improved microclimate
    conditions are particularly important for human thermal comfort and health. In
    this study, an urban scene in the tropical city of Singapore is numerically investigated
    with a fully-integrated, three-dimensional urban microclimate model implemented
    in OpenFOAM. Mass and heat transport in air and storage effect in the urban environment
    are coupled so that the daily turbulent transport in air using steady Reynolds-averaged
    Navier-Stokes (RANS) can be solved iteratively with the unsteady heat and moisture
    transfer from urban surfaces. Vegetation is modeled as a porous medium for the
    flow of moist air and a leaf energy balance model is used to determine the heat
    fluxes and transpiration at leaf surfaces. The analysis shows the influence of
    an urban park upon air temperatures and thermal comfort. Cooling intensity of
    1 °C is observed downwind of the park within a region of 27 m for an incoming
    wind speed of 2.3 m s−1, which reduces to 0.6 °C at a distance of 117 m from the
    park. The Universal Thermal Comfort Index (UTCI) shows a reduction in thermal
    stress in and around the park. The approach presented here can provide specific
    guidelines for urban planners and frame expectations on magnitude and spatial
    extent of local microclimate modifications generated by an urban park in a tropical
    city.
article_number: '100939'
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Muhammad Omer
  full_name: Mughal, Muhammad Omer
  last_name: Mughal
- first_name: Aytac
  full_name: Kubilay, Aytac
  last_name: Kubilay
- first_name: Simone
  full_name: Fatichi, Simone
  id: cf8e546b-a9b0-11f0-a43b-aa89ed1b56d6
  last_name: Fatichi
- first_name: Naika
  full_name: Meili, Naika
  last_name: Meili
- first_name: Jan
  full_name: Carmeliet, Jan
  last_name: Carmeliet
- first_name: Peter
  full_name: Edwards, Peter
  last_name: Edwards
- first_name: Paolo
  full_name: Burlando, Paolo
  last_name: Burlando
citation:
  ama: Mughal MO, Kubilay A, Fatichi S, et al. Detailed investigation of vegetation
    effects on microclimate by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical
    urban environment. <i>Urban Climate</i>. 2021;39. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939">10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939</a>
  apa: Mughal, M. O., Kubilay, A., Fatichi, S., Meili, N., Carmeliet, J., Edwards,
    P., &#38; Burlando, P. (2021). Detailed investigation of vegetation effects on
    microclimate by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban
    environment. <i>Urban Climate</i>. Elsevier. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939</a>
  chicago: Mughal, Muhammad Omer, Aytac Kubilay, Simone Fatichi, Naika Meili, Jan
    Carmeliet, Peter Edwards, and Paolo Burlando. “Detailed Investigation of Vegetation
    Effects on Microclimate by Means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in a Tropical
    Urban Environment.” <i>Urban Climate</i>. Elsevier, 2021. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939</a>.
  ieee: M. O. Mughal <i>et al.</i>, “Detailed investigation of vegetation effects
    on microclimate by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban
    environment,” <i>Urban Climate</i>, vol. 39. Elsevier, 2021.
  ista: Mughal MO, Kubilay A, Fatichi S, Meili N, Carmeliet J, Edwards P, Burlando
    P. 2021. Detailed investigation of vegetation effects on microclimate by means
    of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban environment. Urban Climate.
    39, 100939.
  mla: Mughal, Muhammad Omer, et al. “Detailed Investigation of Vegetation Effects
    on Microclimate by Means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in a Tropical Urban
    Environment.” <i>Urban Climate</i>, vol. 39, 100939, Elsevier, 2021, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939">10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939</a>.
  short: M.O. Mughal, A. Kubilay, S. Fatichi, N. Meili, J. Carmeliet, P. Edwards,
    P. Burlando, Urban Climate 39 (2021).
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-07-27T12:30:23Z
date_published: 2021-09-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-07-30T09:08:16Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '550'
doi: 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939
extern: '1'
fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        39'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100939
month: '09'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: Urban Climate
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2212-0955
publication_status: published
publisher: Elsevier
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Detailed investigation of vegetation effects on microclimate by means of computational
  fluid dynamics (CFD) in a tropical urban environment
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 39
year: '2021'
...