A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE VEGETATION ON THE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

This work was about the study of the variations of the climatic parameters in an urban area bordering a green area. The problem of the great urbanization of the territory led to the registration of high temperatures in the cities, during the summer. Such a phenomenon, called “heat island”, is caused by the employment of those materials used for the urbanization of the territory, that have different responses to the solar radiations that influences the naked soil or on a soil with vegetation. Actually, the presence of a green area in a territory strongly urbanized changes its environmental parameters and those of a bordering zone. In particular, it is possible to record the variation of air and soil temperature and the variation of the wind speed and direction. It as been studied a typical urban context, in which a green area is surrounded by an urbanized area constituted by buildings, car parks and streets totally asphalted. Then the effect of different types of vegetation on the urban area climate has been evaluated, with the help of numerical analysis, and, moreover, the influence area of a specific green area on the bordering urban context has been studied. The computational model employed is the software ENVI-MET that successfully reproduces the interaction among urban surfaces, the vegetation and the atmosphere. The outcomes achieved help to understand how a green area modifies a city climate, making an area climatically more benign both under the comfort point of view for the people living there and under the energetic point of view.