Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) In Human Interaction Based Studies: An Overview of Review

The past two decades have shown substantial growth in Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) studies. This work presents an overview of twelve review articles on OTC studies, five general categories of investigation to date are identified: objective parameter-based models; subjective parameter-based models; design strategies; computational algorithm-based models; and human interactions. A key finding of this overview is the upcoming new school of thought involving comprehensive frameworks for OTC assessments. Due to the increased popularity towards this approach, the authors suggest the development of a standardized model based on this framework. Additionally, this paper presents a detailed review of recent studies on OTC and human interactions based on three topics: OTC assessments; typologies of outdoor public spaces; and human behavior. The findings of this analysis provide insights into the state of art of human activity-based OTC research.