Complexity Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore, Singapore.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 14;12(1):2441. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06383-5.
Due to phenomena such as urban heat islands, outdoor thermal comfort of the cities' residents emerges as a growing concern. A major challenge for mega-cities in changing climate is the design of urban spaces that ensure and promote pedestrian thermal comfort. Understanding pedestrian behavioural adaptation to urban thermal environments is critically important to attain this goal. Current research in pedestrian behaviour lacks controlled experimentation, which limits the quantitative modelling of such complex behaviour. Combining well-controlled experiments with human participants and computational methods inspired by behavioural ecology and decision theory, we examine the effect of sun exposure on route choice in a tropical city. We find that the distance walked in the shade is discounted by a factor of 0.86 compared to the distance walked in the sun, and that shadows cast by buildings have a stronger effect than trees. The discounting effect is mathematically formalised and thus allows quantification of the behaviour that can be used in understanding pedestrian behaviour in changing urban climates. The results highlight the importance of assessment of climate through human responses to it and point the way forward to explore scenarios to mitigate pedestrian heat stress.
由于城市热岛等现象，城市居民的户外热舒适度成为一个日益受到关注的问题。气候变化下，特大城市面临的一个主要挑战是设计能够确保和促进行人热舒适度的城市空间。了解行人对城市热环境的行为适应对于实现这一目标至关重要。目前关于行人行为的研究缺乏对照实验，这限制了对这种复杂行为的定量建模。我们结合了受行为生态学和决策理论启发的精心控制的实验和人类参与者，以及计算方法，研究了在热带城市中阳光照射对路线选择的影响。我们发现，与在阳光下行走相比，在阴凉处行走的距离要打 0.86 折，而且建筑物投下的阴影比树木的影响更大。折扣效应在数学上被形式化，从而可以量化这种行为，用于理解不断变化的城市气候中的行人行为。研究结果强调了通过人类对气候的反应来评估气候的重要性，并为探索缓解行人热应激的情景指明了方向。
