Impact of urban design on air quality: urban architectural models based on confined outdoor spaces

Authors

  • Miguel Ángel Padilla-Marcos
  • Alberto Meiss
  • Jesús Feijó-Muñoz

Keywords:

Air quality, confined outdoor space, CFD, urban density, efficiency of air renewal

Abstract

The flow of air between buildings through outdoor spaces determines its
quality through the resulting on-going process of pollution. Parameters such as population
density, the presence of industries or traffic significantly influence the air degradation
process. An experimentally validated numerical method able to assess the suitability of an
urban design with regard to its capacity to provide the interior of buildings with optimum
air quality for those inside through confined outdoor spaces is proposed. Eight possible
outdoor spaces have been defined in accordance with their position with regard to built up
elements, being laterally delimited by the enveloping planes of adjoining buildings and
whose height is defined by the level of the cornice. This work has focused on finding a
procedure able to analyse outside air quality according to the time that elapses from when
it accesses the urban surroundings in an ideal state of purity and the time that it takes to
be supplied to buildings. In general, the results obtained show that confined outside areas
exposed to wind action have a greater propensity to reduce the average age of the air they
contain. In the cases analysed, it was possible to achieve a considerable improvement. An
increase in quality of up to 78.68% was shown for the air received in the buildings from
confined outside areas, bearing in mind criteria of exposure to the wind in relation to their
form and urban density.

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Published

2017-12-17

How to Cite

Padilla-Marcos, M. Ángel, Meiss, A., & Feijó-Muñoz, J. (2017). Impact of urban design on air quality: urban architectural models based on confined outdoor spaces. Ciudad Y Territorio Estudios Territoriales, 49(194), 645–660. Retrieved from https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/CyTET/article/view/76587

Issue

Vol. XLIX, núm. 194 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Miguel Ángel Padilla-Marcos, Alberto Meiss, Jesús Feijó-Muñoz

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