INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY

Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)

Published online 5 September 2007 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/joc.1609

Urban shading – a design option for the tropics? A study in

Colombo, Sri Lanka
R. Emmanuel,a, * H. Rosenlundb and E. Johanssonb
a Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka
b Housing Development & Management, Lund University, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

Abstract:
Recent urban microclimate studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, indicate that the maximum daily temperature within street
canyons decreases with increasing height to width (H/W) ratio, but higher H/W ratio negatively affects street-level wind
flow. There is also evidence pointing to the cooling effect of sea breeze. The nocturnal heat island is small in contrast
to daytime urban–rural differences. In this paper, we use the software ENVI-met to simulate the effect of different
urban design options on air and surface temperatures, as well as on outdoor thermal comfort. The latter is expressed as the
physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), an index based on air and radiant temperatures as well as wind and humidity.
It is found that high albedo at street level gives the lowest air temperature during daytime, although the reduction is only
about 1 ° C. The lowest daytime mean radiant temperatures result from high H/W ratios of streets. This has a positive effect
on thermal comfort; the increase of H/W ratio from about 1 to 3 leads to a decrease in PET by about 10 ° C. Differences
in air and surface temperatures, as well as PET, are small during the night. The results show that strategies that lead to
better air temperature mitigation may not necessarily lead to better thermal comfort. However, shade enhancement through
increased H/W ratios is clearly capable of significant reductions in PET, and thus, improved outdoor thermal comfort.
Consequently, a critical urban design task in the humid tropics will be to guide the rapid urban growth towards efficient
‘shade growth’. Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society
KEY WORDS urban morphology; albedo; urban vegetation; ‘shadow umbrella’; ‘ENVI-met’; coastal cities; PET; thermal
comfort
Received 8 October 2006; Revised 5 July 2007; Accepted 11 July 2007

INTRODUCTION
Although contemporary urbanization is at its peak in the
tropics, the study of tropical urban heat islands (UHIs)
is relatively new. The first ever tropical UHI study was
published in English only 40 years ago (Nieuwolt, 1966).
During its short history, research on tropical UHIs has
indicated both similarities and differences with the more
intensely studied temperate UHIs. In general, nocturnal
UHIs are smaller in hot humid areas, a fact normally
attributed to higher soil moisture in the rural surround-
ings, and higher sky emissivity due to high air humidity
and cloud cover (Arnfield, 2003; Jonsson, 2005; Roth,
2007).
Of special interest, however, is the daytime situa-
tion, since the combination of high temperatures and
intense solar radiation create severe problems of heat
stress. During daytime there are examples of some
cities in the humid tropics being warmer and oth-
ers cooler than the rural surroundings (Jonsson, 2005).
Moreover, there may be large variations within cities
(Nichol, 1996a, b; Emmanuel and Johansson, 2006).
* Correspondence to: R. Emmanuel, Department of Architecture, Uni-
versity of Moratuwa, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka.
E-mail: rohinton@sltnet.lk
Interestingly, ‘cool islands’ during the day are not uncom-
mon in hot humid cities despite the high solar eleva-
tions (Nichol, 1996a, b; Jonsson, 2005; Emmanuel, 2005;
Emmanuel and Johansson, 2006). Possible explanations
include shading by buildings and trees (Nichol, 1996a, b;
Emmanuel and Johansson, 2006) and the effect of the
sea breeze in coastal areas (Jonsson, 2005; Emmanuel
and Johansson, 2006). Another explanation may be the
fact that a larger part of the incoming net radiation is
transformed into latent heat, and less into sensible heat,
due to the abundance of vegetation and moisture in the
ground (Oke, 1987). The intentional creation of daytime
‘cool islands’ within cities could be an efficient strategy
to mitigate heat stress.
While the modelling of tropical UHIs is still in its
infancy, the need to translate the current knowledge to
mitigation strategies in the tropics is urgent, on account
of the rapidly declining urban quality of life. The possi-
bility to manipulate urban shading offers a feasible way to
mitigate UHIs in the growing cities of the humid tropics.
BACKGROUND
Climate of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka, (Figure 1) is a lowland region with
a typically hot, humid, tropical climate that is affected

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society

1996 R. EMMANUEL ET AL.

by the seasonal wind reversal of the Asiatic monsoon,

which blows from the southwest from late May to late
September and from the northeast from late November
to mid-February. The temperature and humidity are high
throughout the year creating an uncomfortable thermal
environment, which, however, would be worse without
the afternoon sea breeze. The inter-monsoon period
between March and May is the most uncomfortable;
temperatures are at their peak, the relative humidity is
high and wind speeds low because of the formation of
a convergence zone. During this period, the minimum
and maximum air temperatures are between about 25
and 32 ° C, respectively, and the average relative humidity
is around 85%. In December and January, which are
the least uncomfortable months, the air temperature
varies between 23 and 31 ° C, and the average relative
humidity is about 80%. Rainfall is high throughout
the year, with abundant rainfall during April–June and
October–November (Figure 2).
Solar radiation is intense under clear sky conditions.
However, there is often a high probability of cloud
development, especially during the afternoon. At this time
of the day, thunderstorms are frequent. The number of
hours of sunshine is between 8 and 9 from February to
March, and between 6.5 and 7 for the remainder of the
year. Being close to the equator, the solar elevation is
very high throughout the year. From October to March,
the sun is to the south with the lowest elevations at solar
noon of about 60° in December. In August and April, the
sun is virtually in its zenith at noon. From May to July,
the sun is slightly to the north.

Urban thermal comfort

A universal index that appropriately predicts the state of
thermal comfort of humans in respect of the complex
Figure 2. (a) Monthly mean temperature (maximum, average and min-
imum) and rainfall (b) Monthly mean relative humidity (maximum,
average and minimum) and vapour pressure. Values based on measure-
ments by the Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology for the Colombo
city weather station, 1970–2004.

urban outdoor environment is yet to be developed. The

Figure 1. Map of Colombo, Sri Lanka showing the study area.
thermal comfort index used in this study, the physio-
logically equivalent temperature (PET) (Höppe, 1999), is
designed for outdoor conditions. Similar to many ther-
mal comfort indices developed for indoors, such as the
predictive mean vote (PMV), the effective temperature
(ET) and the standard effective temperature (SET), PET
is based on a steady-state heat balance equation of the
human body. Such conditions are, however, rare in the
outdoors, where temporal and spatial variations are large.
Moreover, the PET index has not been calibrated against
subjective comfort votes, and consequently the comfort
limits in different climates is not known. Nevertheless,
this index takes into account all four environmental
parameters which influence thermal comfort: air temper-
ature, mean radiant temperature (MRT), humidity and air
movement. The MRT is often calculated as the weighted
average temperature of the surrounding surfaces. This key

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
 URBAN SHADING IN THE TROPICS
parameter in defining PET is more complicated to mea-
sure or calculate in an outdoor urban environment than
indoor, due to factors such as the exposure to solar radi-
ation, the varying shapes and positions of buildings and
the presence of objects such as trees, etc. Personal factors
such as clothing insulation and the level of activity are
not included in PET.
Since no comfort zone for outdoor hot humid con-
ditions has been defined for the PET index, the esti-
mated lower and upper comfort limits of PET = 27 ° C
and PET = 33 ° C, respectively, from Johansson and
Emmanuel (2006) have been used in the present study.
These comfort limits are based on a comfort zone devel-
oped by Ahmed (2003) for the hot humid summer climate
of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and were based on subjective
comfort votes of some 1500 randomly selected subjects
(Ahmed, 2003; Johansson and Emmanuel, 2006). Evi-
dently, these estimated PET limits are very uncertain
since the comfort zone found in Dhaka is not necessar-
ily applicable to Colombo. Nevertheless, the estimated
comfort zone has been used as a reference in the present
study, since the main objective is to compare the relative
effects of different design options.
Urban climate change mitigation
The conventional approach to UHI mitigation is primar-
ily differentiated by the scale of intervention. At the
local (neighbourhoods) and micro-scale (several build-
ings to entire streets), mitigation strategies have mainly
focused on three aspects: albedo enhancement (Akbari
and Konopacki, 2003; Akbari et al., 2005), increased
vegetation cover (McPherson et al., 1988, 1998; McPher-
son, 2001) and ‘cool roof” strategies (Niachou et al.,
2001; Runsheng et al., 2003; Wong et al., 2003). The
aim of these efforts is to reduce the negative feedback
of urbanization upon air temperature and space cool-
ing of buildings. Other mitigation strategies at local and
mesoscale include ventilation enhancement, and both,
sea breezes (Hisada and Matsunaga, 2006; Junimura and
Watanabe, 2006) and estuarine breezes (Vasconcelos and
Lopes, 2006). Within the urban canopy layer, particu-
larly at street level (pedestrian height) the focus has been
on shade enhancement (’shadow umbrella’ – Emmanuel,
2005).
Our empirical work in Colombo, Sri Lanka (Emmanuel
and Johansson, 2006; Johansson and Emmanuel, 2006)
suggests the following to improve thermal comfort at
street level:
• High ratios of height of building: width of street (H/W)
may be favourable as it leads to lower daytime air
temperatures and more shade at street level. However,
care has to be taken when allowing a more compact
urban form with deeper street canyons, especially in
residential areas, because the possibility of natural ven-
tilation and nighttime cooling of buildings decreases
with an increased H/W ratio. Deep canyons are also a
disadvantage in polluted areas since dispersion is less
effective than in shallow canyons.
Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society
1997
• Horizontal shading is necessary to provide shade to
people and urban surfaces around solar noon. This
could be achieved by large tree canopies, covered
walkways, pedestrian arcades, awnings or other types
of shading.
• Opening up the coastal strip of the city by widening
the roads, which run perpendicular to the coast so
that they can act as wind channels. This will permit
the sea breeze to penetrate further into the city and
is especially important because of the weak synoptic
winds in equatorial cities such as Colombo.
• Encouraging airflow, which is moderate in the case of
Colombo, by using irregular positioning of buildings
and creating variations in building height. Tower
buildings are especially well suited as they increase
wind speeds at pedestrian level, both in front of them
and around their corners (Oke, 1987); if positioned at
a sufficient distance apart, they will not obstruct the
winds on a local (neighbourhood) scale.
The phenomenon of ‘cool island’ during the day sug-
gests that while the conventional nocturnal UHI clearly
exists in tropical cities, the greater ‘quality-of-life prob-
lem’ is the uneven daytime warming (Johansson and
Emmanuel, 2006). Since a typical city has more people
using its public spaces during the day than at night, day-
time warming diminishes one’s ability to enjoy and func-
tion effectively in open spaces. This is especially the case
in the tropics where outdoor living is possible for a large
part of the year, provided there is no rain (Correa, 1989).
It appears that the daytime urban microclimate is
primarily influenced by shade availability in the street
canyon and vegetation (Nichol, 1996a) and openness
to wind penetration (Johansson and Emmanuel, 2006).
Owing to the heterogeneous nature of urban environment
cooler/warmer patches are seen at street level depend-
ing on shade availability (Nichol, 1996a). Owing to the
high angle of the sun in the tropics, much of the short-
wave radiation on building façades is probably reflected
(Nichol, 1996b) and absorbed by the street surface. This
makes street-level discomfort to be largely a problem of
short-wave radiation from above and long-wave radia-
tion from below. Shading and urban landscape features
such as street trees help to reduce this radiation. In this
respect, the lack of shading makes low-density develop-
ments less suitable for urban climate amelioration in the
tropics (Nichol, 1996b; Sad de Assis and Frota, 1999).
In light of these findings, it is necessary to quantify
the UHI mitigation potential of building shade compared
to other conventional UHI mitigation strategies. While
several mitigation studies have estimated the effect of
the urban albedo enhancement and urban vegetation in
different climatic contexts (Fishman et al., 1994; Sailor,
1995; Taha, 1997; Akbari and Konopacki, 2003; Akbari
et al., 2005) no study has examined the effect of urban
shading, especially during the daytime. This lacuna is
particularly problematic in the tropics where rapid urban-
ization is already creating unplanned increases in building
densities. If building density could be used as a daytime
Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
1998 R. EMMANUEL ET AL.

cooling strategy in the outdoors, a positive benefit may • Ground surface and wall temperature for each grid
be derived from the aforesaid rapid urbanization. point and wall;
• Water- and heat-exchange within the soil system;
• Calculation of bio-meteorological parameters such as,
METHOD MRT and PMV (Fanger, 1970)
The approach in this paper is to simulate the air and Details of the calculations and specific aspects are
surface temperatures arising from two common UHI described in Bruse (1999, 2004) and Ali-Toudert and
mitigation strategies (albedo enhancement and urban Mayer (2006).
greening), and compare these with density enhancement A major shortcoming with ENVI-met is that buildings,
strategies for a heavily built-up street in Colombo, Sri which are modelled as blocks where width and length
Lanka (6.9 ° N, 79.9 ° E, 7m a.s.l.). Comparisons are made are multiples of grid cells, have no thermal mass.
in terms of temperature (surface and ambient air), as well Moreover, all buildings have constant indoor temperature
as thermal comfort expressed as the PET index. and albedo. The thermal transmittance, or U-value, for
walls and roofs are the same for all buildings (U-value
Numerical modelling – ENVI-met is defined as the heat flow per unit area under steady
In the field of UHI mitigation, numerical models have the conditions from warm to cold side of a building element,
obvious advantage over field measurements on account of per unit temperature difference).
their controllability as well as time and resource frugal-
ity. The non-linearity of the UHI problem lends itself Simulations
to numerical model-based analysis which is becoming
In this paper, we simulate and compare the street level
popular in urban climatology (Arnfield, 2003).
air temperature and surface temperature effects at one of
Urban microclimate models vary widely, based on
the measurement sites given in Johansson and Emmanuel
their physical basis and spatial/temporal resolution. Ali-
(2006). The measurement site in question (DMP in
Toudert and Mayer (2006) provide a detailed critique
Johansson and Emmanuel, 2006) is located in the old
of the most popular models at the microscale with
commercial sector of Colombo; it is heavily built-up and
fine temporal resolutions. They inferred that ENVI-met
has little greenery (Figure 3). Urban morphological infor-
(Bruse, 1999) is the most suitable model for analysing
mation was obtained from the Department of Surveys, Sri
the thermal comfort regime within the street canyon at
Lanka (Department of Surveys, 2000). The building foot-
fine resolutions (down to 0.5 × 0.5 m). It is a three-
print for the selected simulation site is shown in Figure 4.
dimensional non-hydrostatic model for the simulation
The ENVI-met model of the simulated area (the ‘Base
of surface-plant-air interactions, especially within the
Case’) is shown in Figure 5. The simulations were
urban canopy layer. It is designed for micro-scale with
a typical horizontal resolution from 0.5 to 10 m, and
a typical time frame of 24–48 h with a time step of
10 s at maximum. This resolution allows the investigation
of small-scale interactions between individual buildings,
surfaces and plants (Bruse, 2004). We have, therefore,
selected ENVI-met (version 3, http://www.envi-met.com)
as the numerical model to analyse the effect of UHI
mitigation options in this paper.
Input data required to initiate ENVI-met simula-
tions are:

• Wind speed and direction at 10 m above ground level;

• Roughness length (Zo );
• Initial temperature of atmosphere;
• Initial temperature and humidity of the soil;
• Specific humidity at 2500 m;
• Relative humidity at 2 m.

The model calculation includes:

• Short-wave and long-wave radiation fluxes with respect

to shading, reflection and re-radiation from building
systems and the vegetation;
• Transpiration, evaporation and sensible heat flux from
the vegetation into the air, including full simulation of
all plant physical parameters (e.g. photosynthesis rate); Figure 3. Existing streetscape in and around the simulation site.

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
 URBAN SHADING IN THE TROPICS 1999

Table I. Input data for the ENVI-met simulations. Note that

building input data are shown in Table II.

Main data

Date of start of simulation 3 May

Time of start of simulation 18 : 00
Wind speed at 10 m height (m/s) 4.5
Wind direction East
Roughness length 0.1
Initial air temperature (° C) 30
Specific humidity at 2500 m (g/kg) 7
Relative humidity at 2 m height (%) 77
Position
Longitude (° ) 79.9
Figure 4. Existing building footprint at the simulation site. Latitude (° ) 6.9
Time zone 79.9
initiated using data obtained from a synoptic weather Soil data
Initial temperature in layer 0–0.2 m (° C) 30
station at the Colombo International Airport, Katunayake
Initial temperature in layer 0.2–0.5 m (° C) 27
(7° 10
N, 79° 53
E, 8.5 m a.s.l., approximately 24 km Initial temperature in layer >0.5 m (° C) 27
north of the measurement location). Solar radiation is Soil moisture in layer 0–0.2 m (%) 70
calculated by the program based on latitude, longitude Soil moisture in layer 0.2–0.5 m (%) 80
and time zone. By defining cloud cover and type of Soil moisture in layer >0.5 m (%) 80
clouds, the partition between direct and diffuse solar Clouds
radiation is determined. The calculated global radiation High level (octas) 2
can be adjusted by multiplying by a factor between 0.5 Medium level (octas) 3
and 1.5. The input data for the simulations are shown in Low level (octas) 0
Tables I and II. Short-wave adjustment factor 1.0
The simulation period for this paper is within the
‘worst period’ – the inter-monsoonal times (April/
May) – referred to above. The measurements with which the simulations have been compared were taken during
the same period (Emmanuel and Johansson, 2006).
The following mitigation options are compared and
contrasted against the existing situation at the above
mentioned site:

1. Increase the albedo of urban surfaces by lighter

colouring of all man-made surfaces (i.e. roofs and
walls in white, and light-coloured concrete paved
road) – ‘high albedo case’;
2. Increase the green cover within the street canyon by
planting 10 m high trees with distinct crown, at 20 m
interval along the street – ‘green case’;
3. Increase the shading level at neighbourhood scale
Figure 5. Representation of the ‘base case’ simulation in ENVI-met. by increasing the built massing (all buildings in the

Table II. Characteristics of the simulation cases.

FARa H/W Albedo U-value (W/m2 K) Trees

Road Walls Roofs Walls Roofs

0 Base case 2.80 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.3 1.74 3.30 No

1 High albedo case 2.80 1.0 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.57 0.64 No
2 Green case 2.80 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.3 1.74 3.30 Yes
3 Medium density case 4.70 1.8 0.2 0.2 0.3 1.74 3.30 No
4 High density case 7.84 3.0 0.2 0.2 0.3 1.74 3.30 No
5 Wall/roof albedo case 2.80 1.0 0.2 0.6 0.6 0.57 0.64 No
6 Combined case 7.84 3.0 0.2 0.6 0.6 0.57 0.64 No

a Floor area ratio (Total floor area of buildings divided by plot area).

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
2000 R. EMMANUEL ET AL.

vicinity upto 6 storeys (18 m) high – ‘medium density

case’;
4. Increase all buildings in the vicinity up to 10 storeys
(30 m) – ‘high density case’;
5. Increase albedo of only the walls and roofs as in
(1) above – ‘wall/roof albedo case’;
6. A combination of ‘high density’ and ‘wall/roof
albedo’ cases – ‘combined case’.

The simulation cases are shown in Table II. The floor

area ratio (FAR) indicates the building density in the
selected areas. FAR is calculated as the total floor area
of the building divided by the area of the plot. Albedo
calculations assume that street greenery is below the roof
level. A high-albedo case assumes that the exterior of
buildings (and roads, as the case may be) are light-
coloured. A high-albedo case is also assigned low thermal
transmittance (U-value) in order to enhance the effect
of thermal properties of buildings. U-value calculations
assume the following building construction: Figure 6. Comparison between measured and ENVI-met simulated
temperatures.
• Wall = 225 mm brick walls rendered on both sides
with a 15 mm thick cement : sand plastering Table III. Mean radiant temperature (° C) variations within
• Roof = 150 mm reinforced concrete rendered as in street canyons during the day (14 : 00 h) and night (21 : 00 h).
wall above
• Low U-value wall = Same as above, but with 50 mm East–West North–South
glasswool insulation street street
• Low U-value roof = Same as above, but with 50 mm Day Night Day Night
glasswool insulation and wooden ceiling
0 Base case 48–66 22–24 45–66 22–24
Results of the simulations are discussed in terms of air 1 High albedo case 63–69 22–23 45–69 21–23
temperature within street canyons and the MRT. MRT 2 Green case 46–62 22–24 46–62 22–24
is probably the second most important environmental 3 Medium density case 40–58 22–23 40–46 22–23
parameter after air temperature in the hot, humid out- 4 High density case 36–42 21–22 36–42 21–22
doors. 5 Wall/roof albedo case 59–65 22–24 47–65 22–24
6 Combined case 40–46 21–22 40–46 21–23

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Note: MRT values at 1.2 m above street surface.

Simulated temperature patterns within streets (north–south and east–west oriented

Figure 6 shows a comparison between simulated and
measured air temperature for the base case. ENVI-
met underestimates the maximum temperature (average
daytime temperature difference, i.e. between 0700 and
1800 h = 1.01 ° C). The reason for this can be linked both,
to the input data – some parameters were not measured,
and thus, estimated – and limitations of the simulation
program. Moreover, the program underestimated the
diurnal temperature variations (the measured diurnal
range was 5.0 ° C while the predicted diurnal range was
3.78 ° C). The tendency of ENVI-met to underestimate
diurnal variations was found also by Jansson (2006).
Figure 7 shows simulated temperatures in the middle
of a north–south oriented street canyon:
(a) Air temperature (1.2 m above street level), and
(b) Street surface temperature.
Figure 8 shows the same cases of an east–west ori-
ented street canyon. Table III shows the MRT ranges
streets) at peak street usage time during the day (14 : 00 h
LAT), and at peak night-life period (21 : 00 h LAT).
As regards to air temperature, the results are vir-
tually the same for both, north–south and east–west
streets. For both orientations, air temperature increased
only marginally with height; the difference in tempera-
ture between 1.2 m and the canyon top was less than
0.2 ° C. These small differences are in agreement with
previous simulations with ENVI-met (Ali-Toudert and
Mayer, 2006)
It could be observed that the ‘high albedo’ case
had the lowest air temperature during most of the day
(maximum approximately 1.2 ° C lower than the ‘base
case’) both, in the north–south, and east–west streets.
The air temperature tends to decrease with increasing
H/W ratio. This agrees with measurements in Colombo
(Emmanuel and Johansson, 2006), but the simulated
effect is smaller. This may be due to the lack of thermal
mass of buildings in ENVI-met; with the mass of the

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
 URBAN SHADING IN THE TROPICS 2001

Figure 7. ENVI-met simulation of mid-canyon (a) air, and (b) street surface temperatures (north–south street).

Figure 8. ENVI-met simulation of mid-canyon (a) air, and (b) street surface temperatures (east–west street).

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
2002 R. EMMANUEL ET AL.

walls included, more heat would have been stored in Calculated thermal comfort
the façades resulting in less sensible heat release. The The PET index was calculated at 14 : 00 h, which rep-
introduction of trees resulted in only marginally lower resents the hottest part of the day, and 21 : 00 h, which
air temperatures. This may be due to the fact that the represents typical evening conditions. The calculations
number of trees was rather small, and/or, that the trees were based on simulated air and mean radiant temper-
reduce the net outgoing long-wave radiation. atures (Figures 7(a) and 8(a) and Table III) as well as
The lowest surface temperatures resulted from high- measured vapour pressure and wind speed (Emmanuel
density as well as high-albedo cases (both these cases and Johansson, 2006). The vapour pressure was 33 hPa
led to a maximum daytime surface temperature reduction for all cases. The wind speed was 0.6 m/s in all cases
in the range of 5–6 ° C). The picture becomes even except for the medium- and high-density cases, which
clearer when the MRT distributions within street canyons had wind speeds between 0.4 and 0.2 m/s respectively.
are considered (Table III). Both, the medium-density Figure 10 shows the simulated PET (average for the
and high-density cases, have some of the lowest MRT canyon, 1.2 m above the street level for (a) the hot
distributions during the day. MRT distribution at night afternoon (14 : 00 h) and (b) the evening (21 : 00 h). By
appears less differentiated. Figure 9 (a) and (b) show the day, the shade enhancement (the medium- and high-
MRT distribution for the high-density case at day and density cases) has a clear positive effect on thermal
nighttime respectively. It should be noted, however, that comfort, as PET decreases with increasing H/W ratio;
the daytime MRT is likely to be overestimated by ENVI- the decrease is around 10 ° C for the high-density case.
met as all of the absorbed radiation on the façades
contributes to the warming of the surface, as no energy
can be stored. Similarly, nighttime MRT is probably
underestimated as no energy is stored from the heat of
the day.
It may be noted that the ‘high albedo case’ is included
merely to test the potential effect of albedo in a tropical
setting. The level of increase in albedo anticipated in
this case is not practical as it requires all surfaces within
the street canyon (including street surface) to be light-
coloured, which would lead to uncomfortable glare. Also,
maintaining such high albedo in a high rainfall climate
is practically impossible.

Figure 10. Simulated PET (average for the canyon, 1.2 m above the
street) at (a) 14 : 00 h and (b) at 21 : 00 h. For the evening simulations,
Figure 9. Mean radiant temperature distribution at (a) 14 : 00 h and east–west and north–south orientations had identical results for all
(b) 21 : 00 h. cases.

Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
 URBAN SHADING IN THE TROPICS
In fact, the high-density case has a PET close to the
upper comfort limit of 33 ° C suggested by Johansson
and Emmanuel (2006). Daytime PET values are lower
in north–south than in east–west oriented streets. This
agrees well with the findings of Ali-Toudert and Mayer
(2006) and Johansson and Emmanuel (2006). However,
the effect of street orientation is minor, which is probably
due to the fact that the solar elevation is high at this
time of the day. The effect of street orientation on PET
diminishes when shading increases – either due to higher
H/W ratio or more vegetation.
The high-albedo and wall/roof-albedo cases proved to
have an insignificant effect on the PET. While higher
albedo reduces the surface temperatures, and conse-
quently, also the air temperature, it increases the amount
of reflected short-wave radiation from the environment
at the same time. Since the MRT takes into account this
increased energy flux, MRT may even increase (see ‘high
albedo’ case in Table III). Thus, the insignificant effect
on PET is to be expected.
By night, there are only minor differences between
the cases, and the PET values are just below the lower
comfort limit of 27 ° C suggested by Johansson and
Emmanuel (2006). As expected, the values for east–west
and north–south oriented streets are nearly identical. It is
more surprising that the medium- and high-density cases
do not show higher PET values. The reason may be that
since no heat storage in the façades during the day is
accounted for in the computer model, the nighttime MRT
is underestimated.
DESIGN IMPLICATIONS
The above discussion points out two salient features of
tropical UHIs that have urban design implications. On the
one hand, strategies that lead to better air temperature
mitigation may not necessarily lead to better thermal
comfort (see the differences in air temperatures and PET).
Second, increased density (higher H/W ratios and by
inference, increased shading) is capable of significant
reductions in MRT, and consequently, lower PET (i.e.
improved thermal comfort) (see also, Ali-Toudert et al.,
2005).
Urban shading at street level is a function of street
orientation as well as building height and density (H/W
ratio). Since angles of the sun are high in the tropics,
pedestrian streets should avoid east–west orientation,
while north–south orientation, which provides shade
in the morning and in the afternoon on at least one
side of the street, will be beneficial. Additional shading
devices, particularly horizontal devices, will be necessary
to provide shade around solar noon. Furthermore, spaces
between buildings should be shorter than the shadow
lengths. The high angles of the sun in the tropics
mandate that buildings be closer to achieve significant
urban shading. Such shading strategies should be mindful
of the need to promote ventilation at building and
neighbourhood scales, which is necessary not only for
indoor thermal comfort but also to improve air quality.
Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society
2003
However, it is worth mentioning that the simulations
reported in this paper are for a point in the middle of
the street canyon, 1.2 m above the street surface. The
effect could be different at the edges of streets where
pedestrians are more likely to be present as well as
near trees (Figure 9, also Johansson et al., 2006). At
the same time, slight nocturnal warming was evident
under the trees. Another caveat is the poor predictability
of nighttime microclimate by ENVI-met. Our results
indicate that ENVI-met tends to underestimate the diurnal
temperature variations.
A shortcoming of high-density development could
be its negative effect on street level wind flow. The
promotion of street level shading therefore needs to be
cognizant of the need for urban ventilation. This includes
opening up the city for the sea breeze as suggested
by Johansson and Emmanuel (2006). Unfortunately, this
effect is not possible to simulate with ENVI-met. Another
shortcoming with high H/W ratios is a possible negative
effect on nighttime temperatures. While our aim is to
promote usability of the outdoors during daytime (when
they are most likely to be used), it is necessary to
temper this approach with strategies that are needed
to enhance nighttime conditions. Strategies to enhance
daytime outdoor thermal comfort should preferably be
employed in areas where indoor building use at night is
likely to be minimal.
From the point of view of urban design, daytime
human comfort enhancement (and therefore better urban
quality of life) in public zones of the city could be
achieved by urban form manipulation. This is a welcome
development in the rapidly growing tropical cities, where
density enhancement is already happening by default. If
our conclusions are correct, a worthwhile urban design
task in the tropics could be to guide the rapid urban
growth towards efficient ‘shade growth.’ Urban designers
and planners need a set of design guidelines that promote
shading (the mirror opposite of ‘solar rights’ ordinances)
in public spaces, especially in areas where people are
likely to gather. In this limited sense, it may be feasible
to employ the concept of ‘shadow umbrella’ (Emmanuel,
2005) in public spaces in the humid tropics. The focus of
‘shadow umbrella’ is the shading of outdoor pedestrian
areas; the solar rights of buildings are unaffected and their
ability to act as solar collectors is preserved. Therefore,
such an approach could very well be coupled with the use
of solar energy for buildings, where solar collectors and
solar cells are applied at roof level and on the façades of
upper floors, as well as on shading devices.
Given the limitations of existing simulation tools such
as ENVI-met and subsequent uncertainty of predictions,
further studies are needed to refine our hypothesis. It
is necessary to conduct more detailed thermal comfort
measurements (including MRT measurements) in the
field. This will help in the estimation of the positive effect
of shading coupled with the possible detrimental effect
of high-density development on street level ventilation. It
is also necessary to estimate the effects of the proposed
design strategy on indoor comfort during nighttime, and
Int. J. Climatol. 27: 1995–2004 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/joc
2004 R. EMMANUEL ET AL.
on building/urban energy use (Rosenlund et al., 2006). It
is hoped that developers of urban climate models would
pay special attention to the needs of the urban design
community (more holistic models with higher precision
and at fine spatial scales), so that effective UHI mitigation
strategies can be developed, tested and applied in rapidly
growing tropical cities.
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