Urban Design Guidelines for Climate Change (2nd edition)

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 24 February 2026 | Viewed by 1117

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Graduate school of Engineering, Kobe University 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Interests: urban heat islands; mitigation and adaptation measures; cool roof; green roof; cool pavement; urban ventilation; radiant environment; air conditioning load
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Living Environment Design, Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
Interests: building environment; urban heat islands; building energy savings; building surface coating materials; solar radiation; air-conditioning heat loads; weather database
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Following the “Urban Design Guidelines for Climate Change”, we are pleased to launch the 2nd edition. This Special Issue invites researchers from all world-leading universities and research institutions to contribute their research achievements in this field.

The Special Issue aims to publish state-of-the-art research findings or review articles addressing the problems and future challenges in improving (1) urban and architectural designs that mainly include reasonable and effective application of new advanced materials and renewable energy in urban buildings; (2) urban landscapes that mainly include layout of urban blocks and urban greening coverage; and (3) other research fields related to urban environmental engineering to cope with the current climate change phenomenon and reduce environmental burden.

The Special Issue covers the following topics:

  • Evaluation of the interaction between urban buildings and urban climate by means of field measurement, experimental models, and numerical simulation;
  • Impact of urban landscape change on urban climate or local microclimate environment;
  • Application of new advanced building materials for urban heat island mitigation and energy savings;
  • Selection of climatic conditions for building design;
  • Building load simulation and calculation.

Dr. Hideki Takebayashi
Dr. Jihui Yuan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • climate change
  • urban and architectural design
  • advanced building materials
  • urban landscape
  • renewable energy
  • energy saving

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 6935 KiB  
Article
Multi-Scale Analysis of the Mitigation Effect of Green Space Morphology on Urban Heat Islands
by Jie Liu, Xueying Wu, Liyu Pan and Chun-Ming Hsieh
Atmosphere 2025, 16(7), 857; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16070857 - 14 Jul 2025
Viewed by 238
Abstract
Urban green spaces (UGS) serve as critical mitigators of urban heat islands (UHIs), yet the scale-dependent mechanisms through which UGS morphology regulates thermal effects remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates the multi-scale relationships between UGS spatial patterns and cooling effects in Macao, employing [...] Read more.
Urban green spaces (UGS) serve as critical mitigators of urban heat islands (UHIs), yet the scale-dependent mechanisms through which UGS morphology regulates thermal effects remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates the multi-scale relationships between UGS spatial patterns and cooling effects in Macao, employing morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) to characterize UGS configurations and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to examine city-scale thermal interactions, complemented by patch-scale buffer analyses of area, perimeter, and landscape shape index effects. Results demonstrate that high-UGS-integrity areas significantly enhance cooling capacity (area with proportion of core ≥35% showing optimal performance), while fragmented elements (branches, edges) exacerbate UHIs, with patch-scale analyses revealing nonlinear threshold effects in cooling efficiency. A tripartite classification of UGS by cooling capacity identifies strong mitigation types with optimal shape metrics and cooling extents. These findings establish a tripartite UGS classification system based on cooling performance and identify optimal morphological parameters, advancing understanding of thermal regulation mechanisms in urban environments. This research provides empirical evidence for UGS planning strategies prioritizing core area conservation, morphological optimization, and seasonal adaptation to improve urban climate resilience, offering practical insights for sustainable development in high-density coastal cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Design Guidelines for Climate Change (2nd edition))
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14 pages, 9672 KiB  
Article
Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Pedestrian Count Data for Thermal Environmental Planning in Street Canyons
by Hideki Takebayashi and Taichi Hayakawa
Atmosphere 2025, 16(5), 504; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16050504 - 27 Apr 2025
Viewed by 415
Abstract
In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of pedestrian behavior in street spaces using pedestrian count data—specifically, the number of pedestrians passing in front of infrared sensors installed throughout the downtown area. The analysis focused on three main questions: (1) whether the [...] Read more.
In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of pedestrian behavior in street spaces using pedestrian count data—specifically, the number of pedestrians passing in front of infrared sensors installed throughout the downtown area. The analysis focused on three main questions: (1) whether the thermal environment affects pedestrian behavior, (2) how to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of pedestrian activity, and (3) how to effectively present the results to urban planners and designers. A temporal and spatial analysis method was examined using hourly pedestrian count data over one year at more than 100 locations in the street canyon. The temporal characteristics of the pedestrian count data were classified into weekday and weekend clusters according to the peak hours within a day. The spatial characteristics of the pedestrian count data were clearly defined by distance from the station, office district, and commercial district, according to peak commuting, shopping, etc. Results from principal component analysis and cluster analysis did not reveal a significant influence of the thermal environment on the temporal variation in pedestrian counts. Instead, the data suggested that weekday versus weekend distinctions were the primary determinants of daily and annual patterns, while seasonal and weather-related factors had relatively minor effects. The analytical approach developed in this study represents a valuable and practical contribution that may be applicable to other urban contexts as well. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Design Guidelines for Climate Change (2nd edition))
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