The effect of landscape configuration on outdoor thermal environment: A case of urban Plaza in Xi'an, China

Regulating landscape configuration (building, greenery, and water bodies) is a commonly accepted mitigation strategy for responding to the rapidly deteriorating urban thermal environment. Studies on urban plazas' thermal comfort, particularly those focusing on winter and summer, are still lacking. It also needs to be determined how the strategies interact with one another. This paper used quantitative studies and regression analysis to uncover these gaps. By changing the landscape configuration using the Envi-met model, 15 remodeled schemes of a typical urban plaza were proposed. Thirty simulations and analysis results for thermal environment conditions (summer and winter) were provided. This study also preliminarily investigated the interaction mechanisms between mitigation strategies. The findings demonstrate that increasing the plaza's water and greenery areas can significantly improve the summertime thermal environment. Wintertime thermal comfort is negatively impacted when the growth of the water body is greater than 15%, and the development of the greenery is greater than 40%. When the building coverage is increased within 15%, there is a beneficial effect on both summer and winter thermal comfort. Meanwhile, an interaction can be observed between the three landscape factors' mitigating effects on PET. Our findings could help designers use appropriate configurations to maximize the impact of mitigation.