Editorial 62.2: Envisioning the architectural science research agenda

Welcome to the second Edition of Architectural Science Review for 2019. The first three papers are part the Special Edition on heat island mitigation (Jusuf et al. 2019). These papers were selected as part of the Edition and we have included them in this edition as an extension of the Special Edition. The contributions of these papers add to the general findings. The first paper called ‘Effects of street design on pedestrian thermal comfort’, by Elmira Jamei and Priyadarsini Rajagopalan address the issue of external thermal comfort in cities. The research provides an evidence-based study of the application of cooling strategies on overheating in cities. Using Melbourne Australia as a case study they take a specific study area which will see an increase in development and examines microclimate improvements that can be achieved through the implementation of climate responsive urban design strategies. Using a simulation study demonstrates the benefits of these strategies. The study is important as it supports planning policy for the area. Further importance is that Melbourne’s climate is temperate and highly variable with rapid changes in daily weather patterns and periods of heat wave conditions. Hence the strategies for heat island mitigation, which aim to reduce average temperature conditions, can also create microclimate conditions, which reduce the variations in peak temperature. Hence they can increase the possibility of better conditions for thermal comfort in urban spaces. The second paper related to the Special Edition is another case study. Called ‘Macro and micro level studies using Urban Heat Islands to simulate effects of greening, building materials and other mitigating factors in Mumbai city’. The author Aparna Dwivedi provides an important perspective from the Indian subcontinent using Mumbai as a case study on the effects of urban heat island. This study is important as it examines conditions in tropical climates. The author emphases that the mitigation process needs a further study at the macro and micro climatic level using a simulation study with fieldwork measures. The author argues that the increasing size and intensity of the heat island overheating is caused by the changes in land use and the materials used in the construction process. One important issue in the climate change debate is the displacement in tropical climates of rainforest building development. We realize that rainforest is one of the ways bioregions in control heating and CO2 sequestration. The latent heat of transpiration forms an important heat mitigation process. The clearing of forest areas to make way for urban densification and other land uses contributes to increasing heat temperature rises. The clearing process creates ‘hot spots’ as compared to the surrounding areas. These are studied in detail to examine the effects of building materials on temperature increases. In a world that is now looking at solutions to ‘climate change’, roadmaps formitigation are nowbeing built about how to further utilize the cooling and sequestration potential in tropical rain forest. Research at the University of Technology Sydney reports that one of the most important sequestration measures could be large-scale reforestation, particularly in the subtropics and tropics (Institute of Sustainable Futures 2018). The thirdpaperbyShinzatoet al. is called, ‘Calibrationprocess and parametrization of tropical plants using ENVI-met V4 – Sao Paulo case study’. At first sight, this paper appears to be about the calibration of the simulation modeller topical conditions, in particular, the effectiveness ofmodelling vegetation. Vegetation is a significant strategy for mitigating Heat Island issues due to the latent heat effects of evaporation from the plants. Hence the papermakes an important contribution to themethodology and rigour of future modelling. However, the case study make interesting reading from the morphological perspective and reports on how Sao Paulo is changing with increasing anthropogenic heat sources from traffic and stationary heat loads from buildings through the rising use of air conditioning. Hence, Steve Kardinal Jusuf,Marcel Ignatius,WongNyukHien & Hasheem Akbari in the Editorial for the Special Edition on Urban Heat Island point out