Urban Design
Urban design shapes our neighbourhoods and suburbs creating pattern and form, known as urban morphology. The Urban Design (UD) Credits aim to ensure urban morphology responds to current and future climatic conditions and supports passive cooling with the goal of improving human comfort.
Resilience framework for heat - Urban Design
| Measures (credits) | Reduce | Adapt | Respond | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thrive | Survive | |||
| UD1: Wind Paths | ||||
| UD2: Wind Buffering/Filtering | ||||
| UD3: Street Canyons | ||||
| UD4: Green and blue open space | ||||
| UD5: Retention of existing tree canopy | ||||
| UD6: Water Sensitive Urban design (passive irrigation) | ||||
UD1: Wind Paths
3 default credit points
Outcome
Channelling of breezes to lower local air temperature by removing stagnant, heated air and improve outdoor thermal comfort.
Criteria
> 75% of the development's total street length (including lanes) is oriented (+/- 30o) to the dominant prevailing summer breezes.
Guidance
Wind rose (wind speed and direction) data is avaWind rose (wind speed and direction) data is available from the Bureau of Meteorology.
In the street pattern in Fig. UD1-1(b), most areas are stagnant zones and wind speeds are consistently very low. Comparatively, the wind speeds in the streets shown in the Fig. UD1-1(a) are higher because of the increase of urban permeability, and reduction in amount of stagnant area.
Evidence Requirements
Plan(s) showing the length and orientation of each street relative to the dominant prevailing summer wind direction.
Science Rationale
Orienting streets (street canyons) to channel the prevailing cooling summer winds displaces pockets of stagnant hot air and improves thermal comfort. The research (33) shows ventilation efficiency lies in adjusting street canyons parallel to prevailing wind, as shown in Figure UD1-1 (a).
Related Credits
- UD2 - Wind Buffering / filtering
- UD3 - Street Canyons
- UD4 - Green and Blue Open Space
- All of the Cool Street Credits
References
(33) He, B-J., Ding, L., Prasad, D.K. 2019. Enhancing urban ventilation performance through the development of precinct ventilation zones: A case study based on the Greater Sydney,. s.l.: Australia Sustainable Cities and Society.