An investigation into developing an urban climatic map for high density living-initial study in Hong Kong

Nowadays in view of the growing expectation of qualityurban spaces, planners, architects and developers concern about urban microclimate in the process of urban development. Under this context, the concept of urban climatic map (UCMap) has been introduced. UCMap is a tool for translating climatic knowledge into urban planning process. It can help urban planning professionals to understand and evaluate the effect of urban climatic issues on planning decision. Although a number of researches have been conducted on UCMap, almost all of them focused on scenario of low density cities in Europe, North America and South America; researchconcerning high density cities is seriously lacking.Thus, there is an urgent need to address this issue in high density cities, such as Hong Kong.The Planning Department of Hong Kong Special AdministrativeRegion (HKSAR) Government has initiateda feasibility study of an Air Ventilation Assessment System for Hong Kong. As part of this project, a pilot study has been conducted to investigate the microclimaticissues in a dense urban site in Hong Kong. This paper will present some initial findings of this study. It will illustrate various urban climatic phenomena, such as air ventilation, thermal comfort and urban heat island effects in a high density environment. Based on the field measurement data, the urban breeze ways and air paths have been carefully examined, in order to understand the air flow pattern within the dense built-up area and also to study the Urban Heat Island Effect in this high density region under different wind conditions.