VALIDATION OF EMPIRICAL URBAN VENTILATION MODEL

Abstract

Urbanisation due to the growth of population has resulted in a myriad of environmental problems faced by many city states in the modern society today. With increasing trend of the global population, the issue of the demand for housing will in turn result in deterioration of the urban environment. Urban landscape as characterised by its urban morphology and geometry can exacerbate the problem of low wind flow conditions due to the increased in thermal fabric and roughness. To counteract the issue of outdoor ventilation problems, one way is to design the urban morphological variables to provide for optimum thermal comfort and promote improvements in ventilation by dissipating of built-up of heat in the environment. Based on the literature review, seven morphological variables have been identified that will affect the effect of outdoor ventilation within Housing Development (HDB) Estates in Singapore. Together with the multivariate linear regression model as developed by Lee (2013), this paper discusses the impacts of the morphological variables and the modifications made to these variables in determining the effect of the outdoor ventilation on two existing HDB estates in Singapore. The results and findings suggests that the urban ventilation model developed is useful and reliable in its application and the understanding of the manipulation of these design variables can in turn lead to improvements in outdoor ventilation.