The evaluation of thermal comfort conditions in simplified urban spaces: the COMFA+ model

One of the main elements to consider in urban space design is the modification of the microclimate in order to improve the thermal comfort conditions of people livingin urban spaces.Sometimes it is very important to design very specific conditions for particular activities, time of days and season of the year. Design for thermal comfort requires therefore tools to provide an assessment of energy flows between townscape elements - persons and therefore an understanding of comfort conditions. The COMFA model is a comfort evaluation tool based on the energy balance of the person in a given outdoor space, originally developedby Brown and Gillespie for landscape evaluation.In this study an upgrade of the COMFA, named COMFA+, to be applied to urban spaces is presented. The main effetcs of the urban fabric on the heat flows between the person and the environment are described and taken into account. Finally the COMFA+ is applied to a case study, showing the potential and limits of the model.