Cho Kwong Charlie Lam

University of Plymouth | UoP · School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Urbanisation has changed local meteorological conditions worldwide. The physical features of outdoor spaces are critical in determining outdoor thermal comfort through changes in meteorological parameters. Past studies comparing subjective thermal perception between local climate zones (LCZ) were mainly conducted in humid subtropical regions. This...

Urban populations face increasing heat stress in cities. However, the influence of the built environment of new and old urban blocks on pedestrian thermal comfort remains unclear. This study selected typical old (Yongqingfang) and new urban areas (Knowledge City) in Guangzhou, China, as our research sites. Through field monitoring and surveys, we u...

This brief background highlights Brazil as a 'climate-health hotspot', i.e. a country where climate affects local populations negatively through multiple pathways (Di Napoli et al. BMC Public Health 22(1):1-8, 2022). Knowledge gaps still need to be filled concerning the various climaterelated dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality...

It has been observed that high temperature exposure is associated with a reduction in lung function and some possible biological mechanisms have been suggested. However, it is unclear if thermal perception plays a role in the association. From September 3rd to 15th, 2018, in Guangzhou, China, we repeatedly measured daily thermal perception and lung...

Temperature and population growth are key drivers of energy consumption. However, the relative importance of climatic and socioeconomic factors driving energy consumption at different temporal scales is not well-understood. Therefore, we developed a time-series decomposition method to attribute the relative importance of climatic (heat index and mo...

Shading effectively alleviates heat stress caused by heatwaves and urban heat islands. Artificial shading is a viable alternative to urban greenery when tree planting is impracticable. While tree shade has been studied extensively, the effects of shading devices on the microclimate and illuminance are not well understood. To examine the influence o...

One-size-fits-all approach is common in climate-sensitive urban design due to neglecting spatial heterogeneities in urban form and urban climate. This study explores a spatially-varied climate-sensitive urban design based on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA). Three thermal indices, the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), the Appar...

The unsteady approaching flow (UAF) and its influence upon the flow pattern within street canyon are investigated from a perspective of mechanism in this study. Based on wind tunnel test (WTT) measurements, the boundary conditions for the approaching flow over 2D street canyons (H/W = 2.4) are described in continuous functions of reference velocity...

Urban trees ameliorate heat stress for urban dwellers. However, it is difficult to quantitatively assess the integrated impacts of tree planting and street layouts on visual and thermal comfort in simulations and urban field experiments. We conducted scaled outdoor experiments in Guangzhou to investigate the influence of tree plantings on pedestria...

The chapter looks at human acclimatization in the short and in the long term with respect to intercations between reported thermal perception, monitored meteorological variables and calculated UTCI data. Two different perspectives are employed to investigate both issues: responses from 16 participants in a longitudinal study using a controlled ther...

Changes in urban geometry significantly alters the urban microclimate. Suitable urban geometrical layouts can effectively improve the urban thermal environment to achieve a more sustainable and healthier city. A quantitative assessment of the relationship between the urban geometry and thermal environment is essential to provide scientific guidance...

A story of an international research collaboration on urban climate between PhD graduates of three Australian universities We are three motivated early career academics who completed their doctorate studies in three leading Australian research institutes

The Reynolds number independence (Re independence) criterion of Re > 11,000 is widely adopted to fulfill the dynamic similarity between the urban flow modeling and the down-scale measurements. However, for 2D street canyons with H/W ≥ 1.5, experiments, numerical simulations, and in-situ observations have reported different vortex-flow regimes with...

Internal migration from rural to urban areas is prevalent in China. Past studies demonstrated that thermal adaptation differed among people from various climate regions. However, the outdoor thermal comfort of exercising people with a diverse climatic background remains largely unexplored. This study examines the relationship between short-term phy...

Computer simulation programs have been used since 2006 for analyzing outdoor human thermal environments. This study reviewed 130 peer-reviewed papers published during 2006–2019, which investigated outdoor thermal comfort using computer simulations. Most studies were conducted in the Northern Hemisphere and the temperate oceanic climate during summe...

Validated by wind tunnel data, this study numerically investigates the integrated impacts of wind and thermal buoyancy on urban turbulence, ventilation and pollutant dispersion in full-scale 2D deep street canyons (aspect ratio AR = H/W = 3 and 5, W = 24 m). Isothermal urban airflows for such deep street canyons can be Reynolds-number-independent w...

In urban planning, sustainability is often synonymous to urban livability. Urban livability seeks to improve living conditions of current and future outdoor users and hence it has become a key priority for cities authorities. Melbourne, as the world second most livable city, sets out to improve its urban life quality through various policies and in...

Thermal history can influence human thermal comfort through physiological (short-term) and psychological (long-term) aspects. However, the nature of the interaction between long-term and short-term thermal history is unclear. To investigate the interactive effects of long-term and short-term thermal history on outdoor thermal comfort, we conducted...

Internal migration across different climate zones in China has increased as people seek better economic and education opportunities. Past indoor studies revealed the difference in thermal comfort and timescale of acclimatization of people from various climate zones. However, it is unclear whether the same results and mechanisms apply to transient o...

Urban tree planting has the potential to reduce urban heat island intensity and building energy consumption. However, the heterogeneity of cities makes it difficult to quantitatively assess the integrated impacts of tree planting and street layouts. Scaled outdoor experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of tree plantings on wind and...

People are exposed to multiple stimuli in urban environments, but most studies have investigated the unimodal effect of thermal and visual conditions on human comfort perception. It remains unclear whether the cross-modal effect found in indoor multisensory studies applies to outdoor environments. To understand the cross-modal effect of thermal and...

Reducing night-time air temperature by irrigating urban greenery can ameliorate heat stress in cities. Past studies often used modelling approaches to investigate the irrigation cooling effect during heatwaves. However, few observational studies have compared the differences in micro-scale irrigation cooling effect between heatwave and non-heatwave...

Outdoor thermal comfort could significantly affect the usage and success of urban places. Accordingly, it is recommended to be considered in both urban design and planning projects. Urbanisation has been recognised as a major factor in elevated daily temperature values in Australia. This study aims to investigate the past and current position of ou...

Past indoor studies show that people’s thermal comfort differ between different climate zones in China. However, whether this phenomenon also applies to outdoor thermal comfort is less understood, which is the focus of this study. We conducted meteorological measurements to calculate the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and compared it with t...

A comfortable indoor thermal environment is usually controlled through air conditioning, which can greatly improve work efficiency. However, current air conditioning system design may not consider the spatio-temporal distribution of the indoor environment for large-scale buildings, so the air conditioning system needs to be optimized. Few studies h...

This chapter examines heat-related health effects and suggests public health adaptation strategies to heat waves in China. Due to climate change and urban heat island effects, a future increase in extreme heat events could lead to excess heat-related mortality and morbidity in urban populations. However, the risk of heat exposure is not evenly dist...

Home environment is suggested to be an essential influencing factor for asthma development or asthma exacerbation. However, the association between home environment and childhood asthma among preschool children in the hot humid subtropical region in South China is unclear. We investigated doctor-diagnosed asthma in preschool children due to the par...

Variations in human thermal perception have been described on timescales from minutes to seasons. However, the effect of weather-related thermal extremes on inter-daily changes to outdoor thermal perception has not been well characterised. This study used human thermal comfort data from an outdoor botanic garden in sub-urban Melbourne, Australia as...

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, descr...

The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is an index for assessing outdoor thermal environment which aims to be applicable universally to different climates. However, the scale of UTCI thermal stress classification can be interpreted depending on the context. Previous studies validated the UTCI in individual cities, but comparative studies betwee...

Previous indoor studies found that lighting intensity and visual comfort can affect human thermal comfort. However, it is unclear whether this relationship applies in outdoor environments. This study examines the impact of solar radiation intensity on outdoor thermal comfort in sites with different shading levels. This study used meteorological mea...

Extreme heat presents a health risk for urban population due to likely future increase in heatwave intensity. In the past decade, there is a growing interest to study how extreme heat affects outdoor thermal comfort worldwide. As a thermal comfort index, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) claims that its thermal stress classification can be...

This literature review highlights the benefits of participating in a doctoral writing group, with specific emphasis on how these learning communities foster reflective practice skills development. In particular, this review proposes that the process of continuous peer feedback and discussion benefits students by helping them verbalise their interna...

Outdoor thermal comfort is important for tourism and landscape design. Many previous studies have identified the thermal comfort range for local residents, but how it differs for overseas visitors is unknown. Improving human thermal comfort is essential as it enhances the quality of urban living and the use of outdoor space. Urban green space has p...

Heatwaves can cause discomfort and illnesses due to heat stress. However, how people perceive thermal comfort and adapt to extreme heat conditions on heatwave days is uncertain. Most outdoor thermal comfort studies have been conducted under non-extreme conditions and very few during heatwaves. For those studies that encountered a heatwave, sample s...

Improving visitors’ thermal comfort is important for tourism. It helps the tourism industry advertise tourist attractions to potential overseas visitors. As a way to assess visitors’ thermal comfort, it is uncertain how the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) would perform as a thermal index in the temperate climate of Australia, as it was devel...

Outdoor thermal comfort studies have mainly examined the perception of local residents, and there has been little work on how those conditions are perceived differently by tourists, especially tourists of diverse origins. This issue is important because it will improve the application of thermal indices in predicting the thermal perception of touri...

Previous work on outdoor human thermal comfort has focused on local residents. Our study examines the differences in thermal perception between local residents and international visitors to botanic gardens. This information is important because it improves researcher understanding of tourism climatology. In addition, our study analyses visitor ther...

Academic debates are ongoing regarding the relationship between air pollution, temperature and mortality in urban areas. This article reviews parallel developments in the analysis of the air pollution-heat-mortality relationship by examining the results from air pollution, bioclimatological and toxicological studies. It is shown that toxicology can...

Background. The current weather warning system aims to reduce mortality from heat and cold stress but still has room to be improved in terms of incorporating other temperature metrics. The aim of this study is to determine how extreme temperature affects mortality in Hong Kong. Methods. An ecological study was used; daily weather data were subdivid...