playgrounds provide spaces for outdoor physical activity for children which has been shown to help with not only their physical health but also their mental health and cognitive development vecellio said they have become even more important spaces in a covid-19 world as activities especially this past summer shifted outdoors as it was easier to socially distance what is thermal comfort incorporating thermal comfort into playground designs is a key consideration vecellio said thermal comfort is defined as a persons satisfaction with their thermal environment which is based on both physiological and psychological properties and results when an individual has no preference to be warmer or cooler he stated it is affected by six variables: four environmental (ambient air temperature humidity radiative load and wind flow) and two behavioural (clothing insulation and metabolic rate) on playground-level scales design decisions largely can only significantly affect radiative load (ie sun exposure) and wind flow for comfort so these should be the focus of design consideration vecellio added some design considerations can make small-scale changes to air temperature and humidity but are not as effective as the previous two vecellio emphasized the importance of creating a thermally comfortable environment to ensure that children remain safe from harm while they spend time in playgrounds users of playgrounds need to be comfortable and healthy within them or else play will be cut short and the healthy benefits of being active will not be realized he said this will only continue to be more important as the effects of climate change become more and more apparent in the future simple and effective solutions to improve playground designs vecellio shared that there are simple improvements to playgrounds that once implemented could make a large immediate difference in safety and thermal comfort in playgrounds the great thing about creating thermally comfortable playgrounds is that simple design decisions can have great individual and synergetic benefits in improving the health of its users he said designers can make use of nearby buildings or trees and orient high-use play areas to be in their shadows essentially cooling these areas and cutting down on sun exposure for free there are also multi-purpose natural additions such as trees which can bring a multitude of benefits to playgrounds something as simple as the use and placement of deciduous trees can have numerous benefits vecellio said during the summer these trees can be installed in areas to provide as much shade as possible to keep users cool concurrently a wind study of the area should also be done to ensure that they are also placed in a spot that blocks cold season winds and because these trees lose their leaves during winter they will be able to let sunlight shine through to help provide additional warmth during the cold season adding green spaces in proximity to playgrounds will provide added benefits and an overall improvement in the level of thermal comfort for visitors across seasons the addition of green spaces within playspaces are not only an aesthetic feature but allow for increased microclimatic cooling of the area through evapotranspiration and lower surface temperatures when compared to concrete or asphalt he said moving forward after discovering simple measures that can be implemented to ensure thermal comfort is present in playgrounds vecellio hopes playground designers can implement the discussed solutions by marrying the environmental setup of the site with subsequent design of the built playground environment standards of physical safety and thermal comfort can be upheld in tandem he said in creating the safest play environments possible we have the ability to ensure that childrens health and well-being is given high priority while also providing a fun experience these findings are now part of new informational annex in the csa z614:20 children's playground equipment and surfacing which was released this year by mariam moeen19