Numerical study of evaporative cooling as a climate change adaptation measure at the building and street scale: Case study for Bergpolder Zuid

Adaptation to climate change on an urban scale is important, as increases in temperature will be inevitable according to future climate scenarios. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed for the Bergpolder Zuid district in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The simulations take into account wind flow, solar radiation, heat transfer and evaporative cooling. Two validation studies are performed; one for the surface temperatures and one for the evaporative cooling model. In the final stage, three water ponds are added to the domain and a comparative study is performed. It is concluded that evaporative cooling can reduce the air temperature at pedestrian height (1.8 meter) by 0.9°C to 2.0°C.