Abstract/Summary

People in cities use outdoor space for a wide range of activities such as exercise, rest and socialising. Climate change, Urban Heat Islands and extreme heatwave events are threats to pedestrians’ health and well-being. Good urban planning and design can provide a high-quality urban living environment by meeting the need for outdoor thermal comfort and thermal resilience. People’s thermal sensations and perceptions are greatly affected by the local microclimate and their thermal experience whilst, in turn, outdoor thermal comfort affects the decisions on whether to use a space. This chapter presents the human adaptation mechanism for achieving outdoor thermal comfort, the factors that influence it, strategies for thermal resilience, the management of heat risk, and thermal comfort assessment methods to use. Finally, a case study for evaluating thermal perception in public squares is introduced.