'A

URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES

FOR A TROPICAL CITY;
An Analysis of Urban Climate and Thermal
Comfort Variations in the City of Kandy and its
Surrounding

LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA, SRI LANKA
MORATUWA

A Dissertation Submitted to the

University of Moratuwa as a partial fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the

Degree of Master of Science in Architecture

Ranatunga R.M.P.

Department of Architecture C v•

University of Moratuwa M.Sc I/H

January 2004 I L i 7 JAN 2004

University of Moratuwa

85463

854G3
 URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY:
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
DECLARATION

I declare that this dissertation represents my own work, except

where due acknowledgement is made, and that it h a s not been
previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this
University or to any other institution for a Degree, diploma or other
qualification.

Ranatunga R.M.P.

i
 URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY.
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my gratitude to Archt. Vidura Sri

Nammuni, Head of the Department, Faculty of Architecture, and
University of Moratuwa.

I' m deeply indebted to Dr. Rohinton Emmanuel for

being my Supervisor and for these suggestions in collecting
valuable information and correct guidance given me throughout
the preparation of this research.

My special thanks to Archt. Prasanna Kulatilake for

being Coordinator and for the valuable suggestions, comments
and correct guidance given me in the preparation of this
dissertation.

I am indeed thankful to Dr. Dayananda Waduge for his

suggestions and comments, correct guidance and encouragement
given to me in finalizing this endeavor.

I wish to thank technical staff of Dept of Architecture,

University of Moratuwa for the help to prepare necessary technical
instruments, and also Metrological department and urban
development Authority of Kandy for the information provided.

My thanks for the concern and help received from my

friends who makes me happy in every miserable moment and
uplift my mind to successfully complete this research.

I wish to offer my heartfelt gratitude to my parents and

sister and brother for their loving encouragement.

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 URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY.
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page No
Contents
Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Table of contents
List of Illustrations
Abstract

Introduction 1-7
1. Background 1
2. Scope and limitations 4
3. Justifications 5
4. Issues 6
5. Research methodology 7

Chapter One: Urban design, urban climate and Thermal comfort 8-30

1.1 City as a work of architecture 8

1.1.1 Architecture: A definition and purpose. 8
1.1.2 Physical comfort- The Key factor 9
I. i

1.2 Urban climate modifications 11

1.2.1 Urbanization 11
1.2.2 Parameters of the urban climate 12
1.2.3 Urban climatic parameters and effect on urban
Out door built environment. 13
1.2.3.1 urban heat island effect 14
1.2.4 Thermal comfort in urban outdoor built environment 22

1.3 Urban Form and its climatic influences 24

1.3.1 Urban Form 24
1.3.1.1 Building Density 24
1.3.1.2 Urban spacing 26
1.3.1.3 Street width and orientation 27

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 1.3.2 Influence of urban form on the urban climate 29
1.3.2.1 Land cover 29
1.3.2.2 Water body 30

Chapter Two:.A framework for Analysis,of Urban Climate and Thermal comfort
Variations 31-40

2.1 Procedure 31
2.1.1 Site Selection 31
3.1.1.1 City Center 31
3.1.1.2 Water body 31
3.1.1.3 Vegetation 31

2.2 Dependent variables 32

2.2.1 Method of measuring and analyzing climatic data 32
2.2.1.1 Historical Climate-30-year weather records 33
2.2.1.2 City Traverse 34

2.3 Independent variables 36

2.3.1 Land u s e pattern 36
2.3.2 Three-dimensional form of the city 36
2.3.3 F a c a d e study 37

2.4 Analysis techniques 37

2.3.1 Thermal comfort vs. Land cover. 37
2.3.2 Thermal comfort vs. urban form 39
2.3.3 Thermal comfort vs. water body 40

Chapter Three: Kandy-City Formation 41-46

3.1 Historical background of the Kandy 41

3.1.1 Historical background 41
3.1.2 History of city development 42

3.2 Kandy -present situation 43

3.3 Kandy- urban form 43

 3.3.1 Building Density 44

3.3.2 Urban spacing 45

3.3.3 Street orientation 46

Chapter Four: Analysis Of Urban Climate and Thermal Comfort Variations in

the City of Kandy and its Surrounding 47-76

4.1 Anlysis of Historical Climatic trend of variations 47

4.1.1 Annual variations 47

4.1.1.1 Day time variations 47
4.1.1.2 Night time variations 48
4.1.2 Monthly Variations 49
4.1.2.1 Day Time 49
4.1.2.2 Night Time 49
4.2 Analysis of Existing urban context 50

4.2.1 Land use 50

4.2.2 Three- dimensional form 51
4.2.3 Facade study 52
4.3 Analysis of On-site Measurements Variations and Comparisons 53

4.3.1 Thermal comfort vs Land Cover 60

4.3.2 Thermal comfort vs Urban Form 63
4.3.3 Thermal Comfort vs water body 67
4.4 Urban d e s i g n Implications 69

4.4.1 land cover 69

4.4.2 urban form 70
4.4.3 water body 76

Conclusion 77-80

1. Summary of Findings 77
2. Limitations 80
3. Further study 80
References 81-84
 URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY:
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
LIST OF ILLUSTRATION

Figure Description Page No.

Fig; 1.01 Effect of urbanization on land breeze 11
Fig: 1.02 The Urban Climate 12

Fig: 1.03 urban heat island -a schematic view of urban air

Temperature profile. 15

Fig: 1.04 Down town-Houston 17

Fig: 1.05 City lights of Europe 18
Hg; 1.06 Shadow umbrella effect 19
Fig; 1.07 The ' compact' urban street canyon internal shading
Radiation trapping and restricted ventilation (left)
And view of Patio House study area (right) 20
Fig 1.08 Solar and terrestrial radiation fluxes in a urban green
Structure 22
Fig; 1.09 Density of built up areas that affect urban heat island
Effect 25
Fig; 1.10 Urban spacing- the spaces between buildings 26
Fig 1.11 Urban spacing by influence on thermal comfort 27
Fig 1.12 water body that influence on urban climate 30
Fig 1.13 Kandy Lake that influence on its urban climate 30
Fig 2.01 Travel route 34
Fig 2.02 Measurement techniques 36
Fig 2.03 Facade study 37
Fig 2.04 Effect on land cover for thermal comfort 38
Fig 2.05 Thermal comfort 38
Fig 2.06 Influence the urban spacing for the thermal comfort 39
Fig 2.07 Thermal comfort vs. urban form and effects on street
Orientation 40
Fig 2.08 Thermal comfort vs. water body 40
Fig 3.01 Early map of the Kandy city 41
Fig 3.02 Candy town map 1815 42
Fig 3.03 Kandy city formation 44
Fig 3.04 Density built up areas along the Yatinuwara Street Kandy 44
Fig 3.05 Continuous skyline and buildings along the
D.S.Senanayake street 45
Fig 3.06 Kandy town - urban spacing used as ritual activities 45
Fig. 3.07 Kandy town- the orientation of the streets 46
Fig: 3.08 Kandy town-street views and daily activities 46

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 Fig: 4.01 Annual THI variations in the day time 47

Fig: 4.02 Annual THI variations night time 48

Fig: 4 . 0 3 Monthly THI variations night time 49

Fig: 4.04 Monthly THI variations in day time 49

Fig: 4 . 0 5 Land u s e amp Kandy town 50

Fig: 4.06 City image of Kandy 51

Fig: 4.07 c o n t i n u o u s building and s k y l i n e long t h e long t h e

C o l o m b o Street 52

Fig: 4 . 0 8 Facade study - D a l a d a street North Elevation 52

Fig: 4 . 0 9 Travel Route at s e l e c t e d l o c a t i o n s at Kandy City 53

Fig: 4 . 1 0 Travel Route at selected locations at Kandy City-graph 56

Fig:4.11 Thermal Mesh-Day time city t r a v e r s e 57

Fig:4.12 Night t i m e time city t r a v e r s e 58

Fig: 4.13 Thermal Mesh-Night t i m e city t r a v e r s e 59

Fig:4.14 Land c o v e r m e a s u r e d p o i n t s 60
Fig:4.15 Land c o v e r m e a s u r e d point at Municipal J u n c t i o n 61

Fig:4.16 Land c o v e r m e a s u r e d point at Kotugodella

-Colombo St.Junction 61
Fig:4.17 Land c o v e r m e a s u r e d point at Maligawa junction 62
Fig:4.18 Thermal comfort v s Land c o v e r 62

Fig: 4 . 1 9 Municipal Junction At Kandy Plan form 63

Fig :4.20 North-South s t r e e t F a c a d e - D . S . S e n a n a y a k e Street 63

Fig: 4.21 East- West Street Facade- Hill Street 63

Fig :4.22 Kotugodlla Street C o l o m b o s t r e e t J u n c t i o n at Kandy 64
Fig :4.23 North-South Street F a c a d e K o t o g o d e l l a Street 64
Fig: 4 . 2 4 East- West Street F a c a d e Colombo Street 64
Fig: 4.25 lake surrounding 65

Fig: 4.26 Kandy Lake surrounding and its urban form 65

Fig: 4.27 Thermal comfort vs. Location 66

Fig: 4.28 Travel Route- Lake surrounding 67

Fig: 4.29 THI - Lake surrounding 67

Fig: 4 . 3 0 View from t h e Kandy Lake 68
Fig: 4.31 S e c t i o n T h r o u g h t h e Kandy Lake and Thermal c o m f o r t 68
Fig: 4.32 Mahamaluwa- s h a d y t r e e s 70
Fig: 4 . 3 3 Building setback of Building e d g e s 70
Fig: 4 . 3 4 Building setback of Building e d g e 71
Fig: 4.35 Development of the urban s p a c e for comfortable scale 72
Fig: 4.36 Wide e a s t - w e s t running streets with arcades and trees 74
Fig: 4.37 Overhead planes, Creating s h a d e and s c a l e 74
Fig:4.38 Enhacing the water bodies in the vicinity of a city 76

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 "URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY:
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a research study that

intends to establish the urban climatic design
strategies for tropical cities. As study it analyze the
urban climate in selected locations of Kandy city.
The focus is on the thermal comfort variations in
the city and it's surrounding.

In the present scenario people appear to be

shying away from the public use of urban outdoor
built environment in the city. As a result of harsh
discomfort of the places, that mainly affected areas
are the streets in the urban environments. By
based on the analysis of existing situations of the
study, aims to suggested the means of creating a
climatically pleasing built environment with
improved urban spatial qualities.

This study considered the physical

conditions, and historical context and further
analyzes the on-site measurements that are
responsible for improvement of comfortable out
door built environment in the city.

viii
INTRODUCTION
 URBAN CLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR A TROPICAL CITY:
An analysis of urban climate and thermal comfort variations in the city of Kandy and its surrounding
INTRODUCTION

1. Background:

" What makes a good city?

Might be a meaningless question. Cities are too complicated,
too far beyond our control, and affect too many people, who are
subjected to too many cultural variations, to permit any rational
answer.

Cities like continents are simply huge facts of nature, to which

we must adapt."
Lynch; 1981:1

However cities provide for an existence for city dweller. The

city is also combined with many aspects such as social, cultural,
economical, environmental and so on. All these are combined for its
spatial environment of the man. Further it provides comfort for people.
Physical comfort of the urban environment vastly affects their lives.
Presently, the most urban areas have created uncomfortable
environment for the human life style.

" It is a common feeling that most urban places are less than
satisfactory- uncomfortable, ugly or dull as if they were being
measured on some absolute scale..."
Appleyard; 1981:1

Therefore urban public spaces as an outdoor built environment,

plays a major role of the city environment.
"Urban public spaces are the stages, where the social
interaction, communication, recreation and gathering take place.
These are the common grounds where people carry out functional,
ritual, activities that bind a community together in the normal routines
of daily lives or in periodic festivals"
Stephen Carr; 1992:43

1
 Kostoff [1992], further explained; "The urban public place on
the other hand is a purpose built stage for ritual and interaction.
Basically the purpose is to create a place we are free to use; and
against the privately owned realm of houses and shops."

The city is made of urban masses, and the spaces between

these masses form the street, open spaces, public squares, water
bodies, trees, parks etc. creates an urban context. Within this urban
context man conducts his daily life. While some parts of his daily
activities take place indoor, some would take place outdoors. In this
case man's out door life has to be taken into special consideration.
Such outdoor activities in an urban context is therefore directly
influenced by the out door space. The above said, objects form this
outdoor space, i.e. urban masses, streets, pavements, parks, squares,
trees, water bodies etc.

Therefore in order for man to indulge in his activities, such

context must be beneficial to him. The urban street within this urban
space must be a place for living, a place where human beings can
interact, spend leisure and be free. It must be a place where the
power of community life, the public realm is exercised the most. If not
so, this will result in the loss of space. The street will be merely a
commuting tool that is lifeless, and mechanical. The built form will
dominate urban space and create an uncomfortable and undesirable
place for man. This will lead to a great loss to the cities and its
societies.

Due to the rapid urbanisation process this unfortunate situation

is fast emerging. The built form is dominating urban space and is
directly influencing the climate and other qualitative factors of urban
space. These factors are simply driving man and life away from what
is known as the public space, the urban realm.

Urban areas have particular climatic conditions with a higher

temperature than the countryside. The urban climate is influenced by
solar radiation, building surfaces, trees, water bodies, polluted air
particles, that varies according the degree of pollution, the urban
 density, the street and shade provide by other elements. The rapid
urbanisation in today's context has major effect on urban climate. The
urban climate has a major impact on creating a comfortable urban
outdoor built environment. This mainly effect for the urban life in urban
public spaces within the city.

This study covers the climatic issues that drive man away from
urban spaces as a result of harsh discomfort caused by urban centres.
In This context Kandy offers a unique case for investigation and
drawing up conclusions, aiming at mitigating the conditions. Presently
Kandy city continues to undergo rapid densification of its built mass.
Its location in the valley of a Mountain range further aggravates the
thermal conditions of the place. Architects, planners and urban
designers have a great role to play in bringing a stop to this situation.
The manner in which thermally comfortable spaces can be created
would be by creating thermally responsive built form. Buildings that
will be like a living thing, that feel the changes of an environment and
adapt to it. How can this happen is the question directed to the
Architect, Planner or Urban Designer? It is merely by understanding
the relationship between built form and climate and by merely
responding to it through buildings.

Topic Explanation:

In the present urban context, man is being defeated by the

buildings, the vehicular traffic, the pollution, heat build up, dust, smoke
garbage etc. all these are factors that create discomfort to man. Out of
which the discomfort caused by, heat, wind, humidity etc, could be
known as climatic discomforts. This study is conducted to understand
how the urban form creates such discomforts.

This study is based on the context of the Urban Climate in the

i. ^- -

city of Kandy. It is an analysis of urban form Urban Climate and

v

•^friermal Comfort of streets in the given context. The urban context is

looked into with special reference to, its formation and its effect on
thermal comfort in the city of Kandy.
 This study will derive the relationship between the Urban Form
and the Urban Climate in streets, by which one could understand how'
the urban form affects the thermal comfort of an urban dweller.

Objectives:

The objective of the study is to derive the relationship between

built form (along streets such as city centre, near to water body and
near to vegetation) and its comfort variations. Also the understanding
of the link between built form and climate that makes a space
thermally comfortable or uncomfortable could be developed. This
would be a base for the formulation of guidelines for the designers.

2. Scope and Limitations:

This study considers the urban spatial variations that affect the
thermal comfort. Streets play the major role of the city and therefore it
is the most important content of consideration in urban spatial
variation. The urban street it self is a vast scope of study and so is the
urban climate. However this can be deducted to consideration the
height to width ratio of the selected places. Further it discuss and
analysis of the urban spatial variations of the given context. Study is
limited to a consideration of the physical aspects of the thermal
comfort such as the ratio of building height to street width and not
considers the building envelope, materials.

The urban streets can be categorised as commercial

residential, mixed etc. also the streets can be classified according to
their locations, their orientations, form and size. In this study the
selected urban environment in a specific physical context, which
facilitate the urban out door activities such as streets in the city of
Kandy, and the selected streets are commercial streets. Also looking
at the area of thermal comfort, it can be directed in many ways and
into many depths. The basic thermal comfort would be a
measurement of the thermal comfort index. Where the measurements
are drawn from the variables, known as the dry bulb temperature and
Relative Humidify indexes. Apart from such variable in an urban

/
climate there are many other variable that would directly and indirectly
affect the thermal comfort. Such a s tree coverage, air movement,
presence of water bodies, dust, pollution, cloud cover, and etc.
Therefore thermal comfort condition also h a s many variables, where
due to technical constraints. S o m e of these variables would be taken
a s constant, for example the cloud cover, dust, emission of smoke,
carbon particles, pollution etc. though such variables are not
considered here one must also be aware that these have a great
effect on the urban climate. Also the thermal comfort levels of man
varies according to there habits, behaviour patterns, clothes worn by
them etc. for example a European living in the tropics would be
comfortable in a lower temperature variation while the eastern man
would be comfortable in a higher temperature variation. Also the time
of day and year has effect on climate, where the studies findings
would be viable only in that it given scenario during s a m e time of year
and day.

3. Justification:

The need for research is important because Sri Lanka being a

tropical country many of her urban a r e a s expense problem of intense
urbanisation and related thermal comfort variations. " Urban heat
island effects" are common occurrences. Therefore, the daily routines
of urban population are severely affected.

Every hour, the heat emission and its built up heat, by the way
it h a s been caused for a heat island effect. This has become a harmful
factor to the human beings and their daily routines. Initially, people
were somewhat unconscious to this development, but with time, this
situation has caused a great draw back in the u s e of public s p a c e s .
Due to thermal discomfort, the use of streets tended to be unbearable
a s time prevailed. In such situation people were drawn away from use
of public parks, squares, streets and public transport.

This has automatically resulted in lost s p a c e s and man has

dismissed powerful, urban s p a c e s . Also the drawbacks of using less
public transport, less pedestrian links etc, i.e. the increased u s e of

5
private vehicles has to be faced. This has added to the harmful
situation of pollution and stressful climatic conditions. Therefore it is
obvious that though mostly unseen by many, the problem is apparent
in the existing context. As architects, urban designers and planners it
is the responsibility of professionals to step into this crisis at research
level, which could be useful in application in building design and street
formations. Such research and study would direct development of the
urban form in a climatically responsive manner that slowly draws man
away from the harmful crisis he awaits according to the present
scenario. This obviously is a problem to human life in the urban
context.

4. Issues:

The primary characteristic of tropical urban climate is its almost

unchanging weather patterns. According to Emmanuel [1993],

"Unlike other climates daily weather pattern dominates over

seasonal weather. It is said that in the region all s e a s o n s occur within
a single day. While, there are no single climatic parameter is
excessively high. The combination and the time of occurrence make
equatorial climate, unbearable. From a thermal comfort point of view
the high air temperature, high relative humidity and lack of air
movement is extremely oppressive though such parameter on its own
is not thermally oppressive".

The process of rapid urbanisation is adding to the urban m a s s

and lack of care and development in the built form, creates a
haphazard development that has no response towards the
environment. This situation is an issue that needs to be addressed by
architects, planners and urban designers. Due to this factor and the
increase in the population there is still more increase in urban density,
vehicular traffic, pedestrians' etc. which creates a highly d e n s e street
environment. This c a u s e s major flaws in the thermal comfort of man.
The highly built up street e d g e s traps urban heat and air between the
surfaces causing an urban canyon effect. Also the increase in dust
particles, pollution also a d d s to build up of urban heat, which
 increases the urban heat island effect. The building density also
creates a lack of s p a c e for efficient air movement in the urban streets.
Lack of open s p a c e s , trees, and urban water bodies again intensifies
an already stressful climate. Also it is known that the build up of heat
during daytime takes long hours to cool according to heat index of
materials in the urban form and lack of wind effect to carry warm air
and bring in cool breeze. This ends up in a scenario that heat is built
up and trapped where heat reduction or emission becomes a slow
process leaving most times of the day and night warm in the urban
tropics. This problem can be addressed a s two main issues according
Emmanuel [1993],"The problem of climate conscious equatorial urban
design is therefore two folds: Prevention of heat build-up a s the day
unfolds and encouraging convective cooling at night."

Thereby the architectural issue would be how to build and

design streetscapes that are in keeping with the demand of usable
s p a c e and also being in response to climatic comfort levels to man at
all times day and night.

5. The method of study

General analysis of facts related to thermal comfort of urban

built environment and preparation of a format for subsequent research.

The method of study considered the survey of literature

preparing to urban growth related urban climatic variations. By
analysis of which a framework was formulated which could be adopted
to evaluate the conditions of tropical city. The c a s e of Kandy city was
studied using this framework

Here this study is analysed by using on- site data

measurements of selected locations in the city. In this regard street
# w a s considered a s the main role to study. Based on this comparative
study on Kandy city a s a c a s e study, conclusions are to be derived in
respect of urban climatic design strategies for tropical cities in given
contexts. , , ;