Around half of the world’s human population lives in urban areas and this number is always growing. In the near future it is expected that the global rate of urbanization will increase by 70% of the present world urban population by 2030, as urban agglomerations emerge and population migration from rural to urban/suburban areas continues. As the human population grows in urban areas, we build more houses, roads, industries, and commercial buildings.
This increased population has caused the increased production of pollution, modification of the physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, and the covering of the soil surface. The buildings, concrete, asphalt, and the human and industrial activity of urban areas are continuously contributing to the climate change. Our average summer temperatures are predicted to keep rising in a way that what is now considered as heatwave temperature will be the average temperature in most summers by the middle of this century.
Big cities like London, Birmingham, and Manchester also generate their own microclimate, known as the Urban Heath Island (UHI), which can result in the centre of the cities being up to 20°F (11°C) warmer than the rural areas around them. This can aggravate the effects of hot weather.
Summer heatwaves may make our homes, workplaces and public transport very uncomfortable, and can have severe affect on our health, particularly of vulnerable people.
The 2003 summer heatwave resulted in about 2000 excess deaths in London. The hot temperatures in 2006 resulted in extremely high demands on London’s power supply network and subsequent ‘brown outs’, due to the high cooling demand. Future increases in electricity demand for cooling could affect London’s sustainability.
We can carry out the summertime overheating calculation for you and take necessary steps recommended by the Thermal comfort and overheating risk assessment tool to minimise the summertime overheating. We are experienced in analysing all different sizes of commercial and residential buildings for summertime overheating compliance with Building Bulletin 101. The 3d model created for the overheating analysis can then be used for the Part L2 calculations, if required. The simulation system allows a range of different mitigation strategies/passive measures to be tried in order to minimise overheating.
