USING THERMAL WALKS TO EXAMINE PEDESTRIANS' THERMAL (DIS)COMFORT WHEN TRANSITING ACROSS INDOOR, SEMI-OUTDOOR AND OUTDOOR THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS IN SINGAPORE'S EQUATORIAL CLIMATE

Abstract

Assessing pedestrians’ thermal comfort in their transitions across distinct thermal environments is important for equatorial cities. This is because pedestrians are traversing increasingly pronounced microclimate/thermal differences between indoors, semi-outdoors and outdoors caused by rapid urbanisation and global warming. Using a panel study in Singapore, this thesis examined the variations and differences in pedestrians’ thermal comfort during their traverse and proposed an adapted second-order derivative approach to determine acceptable differences between the environments to maintain pedestrians’ comfort. Participants’ thermal comfort during the thermal walks were assessed using PET and mPET indices, and microclimate perception questionnaires. Results reveal differences in microclimate exposures and sensations across thermal step-up and step-down transitions. Neutral mPET for the thermal walks was approximately 41°C. The adapted approach reveals that participants maintained acceptable mPET conditions when thermal step-down (step-up) does not exceed 3.7°C (1.6°C). Refinement to the adapted approach is needed using a larger dataset.