Identifying priority areas for optimizing the urban thermal environment by considering the impacts of the built environment on outdoor thermal comfort

The thermal environment effect poses great threats to the sustainable development of cities. It is crucial to identify the priority areas for optimizing the urban thermal environment as a strategy to mitigate this effect effectively. We developed a comprehensive framework of metrics to evaluate community-scale outdoor thermal comfort and built environment characteristics. This framework includes the universal thermal climate index and metrics of green space and urban morphology, utilizing a large dataset of meteorological data. Subsequent spatial econometric analysis pinpointed built environment metrics that have a significant impact on outdoor thermal comfort. Additionally, we applied methods of supply-demand matching and priority division to determine key areas with supply-demand imbalances and identify priority areas. The results showed substantial variability in outdoor thermal comfort among different community units in the old city of Fuzhou, China. Seven metrics of building coverage ratio, patch density, and patch shape index, etc. significantly influenced outdoor thermal comfort. Among the four identified supply-demand relationships between the built environment and outdoor thermal comfort, 97 community units were categorized as key areas of supply-demand mismatch, with 45 of these identified highest priority. This study provides a scientific foundation for devising more focused strategies to optimize the urban thermal environment.