Open access
Date
2021-08Type
- Working Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
The importance of walking, the most basic form of transportation, is growing. Climate change, comfortable walking distances could get reduced drastically. There is a clear need to better understand how outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) and walking interact. In this work, thermoregulation of the human body is modeled with the two-node model to determine the influence of the microclimate on pedestrian’s OTC. First, the impact of the current microclimate in Zurich on the route choice of pedestrians is analyzed. We found no significant correlation between simulated OTC of walking a particular route and route choices for all trips, but results for longer trips indicate a possible influence. It is pointed out that the same assessment could be done for other regions, and results could contribute to more accurate pedestrian modeling. Second, a tool is developed that can estimate OTC-corrected walking distances from any location. The tool is applied to the current climate and future climate scenarios. The results show that in the future, pedestrian’s OTC in Zurich will be severely decreased. Further, the tool can detect where there is potential for and, through its accessibility approach, quantify improvements to the built environment citywide. Future work should focus on enhancing physiological input parameters to the model. This work provides a novel use of the two-node model for walking subjects in a citywide assessment. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000506269Publication status
publishedJournal / series
Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und RaumplanungVolume
Publisher
IVT, ETH ZurichSubject
Outdoor thermal comfort; Heat stress; Walkability; Route choice; Dynamic thermal environment; Climate changeOrganisational unit
03521 - Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus) / Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus)
02655 - Netzwerk Stadt u. Landschaft ARCH u BAUG / Network City and Landscape ARCH and BAUG
09827 - Heinen, Eva / Heinen, Eva
Related publications and datasets
Is previous version of: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/527978
Is previous version of: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000566526
Notes
Paper accepted for presentation at the Transportation Research Board 2022 Annual Meeting.More
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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