The thermal comfort level of activities on public outdoor space

Size of outdoor public space and variation in urban culture background will cause different activity behaviors. Thermal comfort of local climate will also play a key role as well. This study is mainly investigated the relationship between the microclimate of outdoor public space and personal thermal comfort. Through the unique climate types of certain latitude in Taiwan, it can understand about the thermal comfort in public space, and the correlation between the summarization and analysis of physical measurement and the questions of responsive questionnaire. The framework of this study is divided into these following three directions: questionnaire survey, observation record of users´ outdoor activities characteristics field survey by using microclimate measurement apparatus have been carried synchronically. Research period is on every Sundays from September 2010 to January 2011, and the research object is the Wen-Hsin Forest Park - an urban park in Taichung City. Mount area and outdoor activities area in the park are the main sites to record the observation of activity behavior, carry out the survey with the Personal Thermal Comfort Questionnaire with adding the number of wearing clothes as the reference basis in order to record users´ activity behavior and the thermal comfort of outdoor ambient temperature. Equipment and apparatus were set in outdoor activities area to actually measure the air temperature, relative humidity, globe temperature (GT) and wind velocity. The survey results showed the range of WBGT (Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature) which interviewees would feel comfortable is between 19.8°C~27.7°C, and interviewees will change the clothing they wore following the climate changes; in addition, the changes in the number of people for outdoor activities will be affected by radiation intensity as well.