Studying impact of infrastructure development on urban microclimate: Integrated multiparameter analysis using OpenFOAM

In the need of more facilities and comfort, people are compelled to migrate from rural areas to developed cities. The growing population in urban areas, demand dense and facilitated building structure along with peripheral infrastructure. The current study uses OpenFOAM to analyse the impact of infrastructure development on wind profile and temperature of the surrounding area along with the cooling effect of vegetation cover. Air temperature and wind velocity are calculated at different points in the study region and are compared for various scenarios. The maximum change in the air temperature and wind velocity is found as 0.7 K and 0.4 m/s respectively due to an increase in building temperature during the day, while the minimum change is about 0.05 K and 0.1 m/s in densely vegetated areas. An assumption also has been taken to predict the vegetation cooling effects in surrounding buildings and is analysed with the temperature difference of 0.1 K to 0.5 K. The integrated analysis of wind and temperature around the infrastructure shows the magnitude of the impact constructed sites generates on urban microclimate and the results can be used for designing of a regulated area in terms of microclimate.