Biomimicry-Based Strategies for Urban Heat Island Mitigation: A Numerical Case Study under Tropical Climate
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Research Group Energy and Comfort in Bioclimatic Buildings, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Panama City 0819, Panama
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Centro de Estudios Multidisciplinarios en Ciencias, Ingeniería y Tecnología (CEMCIT-AIP), Avenida Domingo Díaz, Panama City 0819, Panama
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Andreas Taubert
Biomimetics 2021, 6(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6030048
Received: 11 May 2021
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Revised: 8 June 2021
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Accepted: 6 July 2021
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Published: 16 July 2021
In recent years, demographic growth has caused cities to expand their urban areas, increasing the risk of overheating, creating insurmountable microclimatic conditions within the urban area, which is why studies have been carried out on the urban heat island effect (UHI) and its mitigation. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the cooling potential in the application of strategies based on biomimicry for the microclimate in a historical heritage city of Panama. For this, three case studies (base case, case 1, and case 2) of outdoor thermal comfort were evaluated, in which the Envi-met software was used to emulate and evaluate the thermal performance of these strategies during March (highest temperature month) and October (rainier month). The strategies used were extracted from the contrast of zebra skin, human skin, evaporative cooling, and ant skin. The results showed a reduction of 2.8 °C in the air temperature at 11:00, the radiant temperature decreased by 2.2 °C, and the PET index managed to reduce the thermal comfort indicator among its categories. The importance of thinking based on biomimicry in sustainable strategies is concluded; although significant changes were obtained, high risks of discomfort persist due to the layout and proximity of the building.
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Keywords:
biomimicry; biomimetics; urban heat island; exterior thermal comfort; equivalent physiological temperature (pet)
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MDPI and ACS Style
Araque, K.; Palacios, P.; Mora, D.; Chen Austin, M. Biomimicry-Based Strategies for Urban Heat Island Mitigation: A Numerical Case Study under Tropical Climate. Biomimetics 2021, 6, 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6030048
AMA Style
Araque K, Palacios P, Mora D, Chen Austin M. Biomimicry-Based Strategies for Urban Heat Island Mitigation: A Numerical Case Study under Tropical Climate. Biomimetics. 2021; 6(3):48. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6030048
Chicago/Turabian StyleAraque, Kevin, Paola Palacios, Dafni Mora, and Miguel Chen Austin. 2021. "Biomimicry-Based Strategies for Urban Heat Island Mitigation: A Numerical Case Study under Tropical Climate" Biomimetics 6, no. 3: 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6030048
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