Planning urban microclimate through multiagent modelling: A cognitive mapping approach

The phenomenon of Urban heat islands (UHI) is most pronounced in areas with high urbanization and complex phenomena, in which the domains of interaction between humans and the environment are not standardized. In this context, an approach fairly attentive to agents’ (particularly human) behaviors represents an interesting research perspective. The paper works on analyses carried out in a case-study of public condo housing owned by the Institute of social housing (IACP) in Bari (Italy), starting from a knowledge base collected through focus-group experimental sessions. Fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) is particularly dealt with, and a model based on FCMapper® tool allows the use of local knowledge of stakeholders’ analysis for ecological modelling and environmental management in a bottom-up-decision-making process. The paper follows and completes a previous work presented and discussed in CDVE 2011