Key Concepts

From the 1970s-80s on, the relationships between urban morphology and local microclimate have been widely tackled in the international scientific debate (Givoni, Olgyvay, Oke, Owens, etc.). Many studies have demonstrated that the formal characteristics of urban settlements strongly affect the performance of the key environmental parameters (wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, solar radiation, etc.), thus simultaneously determining climatic features on the micro-scale and thermal comfort conditions of a given space. The consequences are not limited to the quality and liveability of a space, according to the degree of well being, but affect the overall energy balance of a city and its needs.