Urban bioclimatic design strategies for a tropical city

Some towns in the intertropical zone, such as the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, presented in this paper, have composed climates whose variations throughout the year require alternative design decisions, in order to make use of passive environmental resources. On the other hand, the great variation of urban settlements produces different kinds of microclimates inside the city. This paper shows the application of an urban design strategy that takes into account those climatic variations, using the cityʹs available climatic data and physical simulations of the thermal field in urban areas, to analyze the influence of urban forms (land use, typology and building configurations) on climatic change. With the application of a thermal comfort index, it is possible to evaluate the local conditions of human bioclimatic stress. This kind of result can be applied to the city land-use legislation, bearing in mind the preservation of bioclimatic conditions in urban spaces