The effect of pavement characteristics on pedestrians’ thermal comfort in Toronto

Urban heat island (UHI) has proved to have an important effect in urban microclimate of large cities. In particular, the materials used for the pavements of urban spaces and sidewalks affect pedestrians’ comfort significantly. Dark materials store solar radiation during the day and re-radiate it overnight. Reversely, cool materials, given their high albedo, are often proposed for mitigating UHI issues. This paper focuses on the effect on the outdoor thermal comfort of different materials in a main urban square in Toronto. The study is performed at the neighborhood scale, using the high resolution software ENVI-met. Simulations done for a summer heat wave in 2015 allowed predicting the maximum effect of pavements with surfaces having different albedo. The physiological equivalent temperature (PET) is used to assess the pedestrians’ thermal comfort. The results show the relative effectiveness of different pavement materials. In particular, thermal comfort evaluations are reported to assess the microclimate benefits of bright marbles over black granites.