Site climate
Ar. Deeksha
Asst. Professor
Srinivas School of Architecture
Deviations within a zone
• Knowledge of climatic zones or regional climatic
data is not enough.
▫ may be sufficient for preliminary assessments and
sketch designs
• Every city, town or village have its own climate,
slightly different from that of the region
• Information from meteorological station
describes macroclimate - the general climate of
a large area, as of a continent or country.
• Seldom sufficient as conditions vary within a
short distance from point of observation
Microclimate
• Local atmospheric zone where
the climate differs from the surrounding area.
• Areas can be as small as a few square feet (for
example a garden bed) or as large as many
square miles.
• Examples –
▫ near water bodies which may cool the local
atmosphere
▫ heavily urban areas where brick, concrete, and
asphalt absorb the sun's energy, heat up, and
reradiate that heat to the ambient air (urban heat
island)
Site climate
• It is the microclimate of a site
• Implies the climate of the area available, both in
horizontal extent and in height
Designers task
• Identify most suitable area for habitation – take
advantage of favorable and mitigate unfavorable
• Lengthy on-site observations rarely possible
• Start with regional data and assess likely
deviations – consult experienced observer
• Should be early in the design stage
Local Factors
• Topography- slope, orientation, exposure,
elevation, hills, valleys at/near the site.
• Ground surface- natural/man-made, reflectance,
permeability, soil temperature – affects
vegetation
• Three dimensional objects – trees, tree belts,
fences, walls, buildings – influence air
movement, cast shadows and may divide the
area into smaller units with different climate.
• See how each of these factors may affect the
different climatic elements
Air Temperature
Air temperature
• Near ground, air temp is dependent upon amount of
heat gained or lost at the surface & any other
surface that it recently came in contact with.
• During Day-
▫ Surfaces are heated, air nearest to surface is hottest
▫ In calm conditions, air within 2m height remains
stratified in layers of diff temperatures
▫ Mixing takes place as heat build-up of lowest layer
becomes enough to cause an upward flow.
• At night-
▫ Ground loses much heat by radiation, temp falls
below that of air
▫ Direction of heat flow is reversed – air to ground
▫ Lowest layer of air becomes cooler
Air temperature
Air temperature
• This phenomenon is called temperature
inversion
• Night time situation is much more stable – no
thermal forces tending to cause disturbances.
• Cold air tends to settle in deepest depressions
• Behaves as a highly viscous liquid – does not
flow readily
• Flows downhill and along sloping valley floor
• Can add up to a katabatic wind – concentrated
and accelerating flow of a cold mass of air
Humidity
Humidity
• RH depends on DBT and AH
• Daytime – mixing of air evens out the humidity
difference.
• At night –
▫ Clear night with still air
▫ Lowest layer cools – RH increases – reaches
saturation point
▫ Excess moisture condenses to form dew
▫ Fog starts forming
▫ If no air movement – thick layer of fog formed
Precipitation
Precipitation
• If moisture bearing winds occur from same
direction, effect of hills are pronounced
• If ground level changes 300m, windward slope
gets more rainfall than average
• Hill forces air
mass to rise and
thus cool
• Descending air
mass increases
in temp and
absorbs moisture
Precipitation
• Can happen in towns – surfaces heat up and
cause upward air movement
• Effect of driving rain will be more pronounced
in windward side.
Solar Radiation
Local Factors affect solar radiation in three ways
Solar radiation
• Intensity
▫ transparency of atmosphere, pollution, smoke, smog,
dust, cloud formations
▫ slope and orientation of site
• Daily total radiation
▫ influenced by slope (lesser radiation for northern
slope in north hemisphere)
▫ nearby hills, trees, existing buildings by casting
shadows – pronounced when they are east or west of
site
• Radiation on vertical surface depends on its
orientation
• Surface quality – more heating for stone, asphalt
and concrete (44 ºC) than for vegetation
Air Movement
Air movement
• Air flow across any surface
is subject to friction
• Type of ground cover
affects wind speed –
slower near ground,
uneven ground cover
increases the difference
Air movement
• Hilly site- max wind speed at crest, low speed at
valleys and depressions
• Different case when direction of valley and wind
coincides – shelters from cross winds and funnels
parallel winds
• Long tall slabs or rows of buildings have similar effect
• Daytime heating of air by barren ground in Hot-Dry
regions causes local winds, usually whirlwinds or
local breezes.
• Large water bodies create local coastal breezes from
water to land, reduces temp by upto 10ºC but
increases humidity
• Lakeshores –only upto 400m inland
• Sea coast – reach much further inland if favorable
topography
Special characteristics
Thunder-storms
Dust and sand-storms
Earthquakes
Vegetation
Thunder-storms
• Local topography can influence path, intensity
and frequency, Particularly affects accompanying
electrical phenomena
• Tops of hills and tall buildings, even on level
ground may be attractive target for lightning
Dust and sand-storms
• Ground surface provides sand and dust to wind
• Topography funnels or divert the wind
• Sand only drifts along the surface, so small
barriers will effectively block its movement
• It will be deposited where wind speed is reduced
• Smaller particles are carried more freely, height
of 1500 m or more
• Barriers can provide adequate protection
• But it may exclude the possibility of utilizing the
air movement for cooling purpose
Earth quakes
• Occur in well defined seismic zones
• Macro seismic information is available
everywhere
• Seismic danger zones can be pinpointed on a
small scale with geological evidence (location of
fault lines)
• Isoseismal maps , showing lines of equal
earthquake risk are available.
Urban Climate
Urban climate
• Man made environments create microclimates of
their own, deviating from the macro climate of
the region
• Such intervention with natural environment is
greatest in large towns or cities
Urban climate - Factors
• Changed surface qualities – increased absorbance of
solar radiation, reduced evaporation
• Buildings – cast shadows and act as barriers to winds,
but also channeling winds with localized increase in
velocities, absorbs heat in their mass and slowly
releases at night
• Energy seepage – through walls and ventilation of
heated buildings, output of refrigeration and AC,
combustion engines, electrical appliances etc
• Atmospheric pollution – waste products of boilers
and chimneys, exhaust from vehicles, fumes and
vapours (reduce direct solar radiation but increase
diffuse radiation and block outgoing radiation)
Urban climate - Effects
• Air temperature
▫ can be 8ºC higher
▫ Upto 11ºC difference has been reported
• Relative humidity
▫ Reduced by 5-10%
▫ due to quick run-off of water from paved areas,
absence of vegetation and high Temperature
• Wind velocities
▫ Can be reduced to less than half
▫ But funneling effect along closely built up streets can
more than double the velocities
▫ Strong turbulence at leeward corners of obstructions