A Study on the Impact of Urban River Refurbishment to the Thermal Environment of Surrounding Residential Area

Daewuk Kim, Jae-Gyu Cha, Eung-Ho Jung

Department of Environmental Planning, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2014.55048                

Abstract

In this study, a simulation was conducted targeting Beomeo stream of Daegu, for the purpose of the quantitative determination of the changes in thermal environment of surrounding residential areas according to the urban river refurbishment. For the study method, the reviews of literature and model verification were conducted, and then the results were derived through the process of comparing and analyzing the thermal environment resulting from the river refurbishment of the target area. As a result of the model verification, the accuracy of modeling was 95%. As a result of a simulation of the target area, in respect of the fluctuation of temperature, the temperature decreased by 1.33°C more in the daytime than in the night time, due to the river refurbishment. In respect of the positions, the decrease of the temperature was 1.33°C at 2 pm at position 1, the position of river refurbishment, and the highest in the entire time slots. Also, the changes in temperature increasingly decreased from position 1 to position 4. It seemed that it was because there was the highest radiant heat at position 1 with the biggest gap between artificial mulching and natural mulching, and the effect of the gap in the radiant heat influenced successively over position 2, 3 and 4. Lastly, in respect of the effect of river refurbishment on the surrounding area, the effect reached to position 3, in other word, 60 meters from the river.

Keywords

Residential Area, Urban Heat Island, Urban Micro Climate, River Refurbishment, Thermal Environment

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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