Redefining Urban Morphology Using Multi-Objective Optimization for Enhanced Thermal Comfort in Neighborhoods

Urbanization has transformed both climate and urban morphology, with emerging urban open spaces as pivotal ecological components in the efficacy evaluation of urban development initiatives. This research introduces an automated framework aimed at optimizing urban design by reconfiguring urban blocks and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) while concurrently enhancing residents' thermal comfort within open spaces of urban residential communities. The study delineates three primary optimization objectives: (1) minimization of solar exposure hours, (2) reduction of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) to assess urban micro-climate quality within dry and hot climates, and (3) maximization of open spaces areas as a spatial consideration. The study primarily aims to generate a novel Environmental Form-Based Code in different climatic zones especially for the 4^th generation cities in Egypt using a new dedicated parametric script to generate optimized urban morphology. For validation, the study extracted fundamental urban forms out of real urban contexts for comparison against generated urban blocks through a genetic algorithm implemented within the Rhino/Grasshopper toolset and Wallacei X plugin for multi-objective optimization. The study focuses on courtyard blocks due to their recognized efficiency in energy consumption. Optimization efforts were applied to deduce the urban morphology parameters of 77 existing urban blocks in New Mansoura City, Egypt. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework through optimization iterations totaling 100. A series of optimal outcomes were attained across the three objectives, alongside the establishment of selection criteria tailored to diverse urban design strategies. Notably, the UTCI witnessed a reduction ranging from 33.2 to 32.4 on the hottest day in summer, accompanied by a total decrease in solar hours by 1.5 hours. The research outcomes recommended changing building regulations in many morphological aspects like changing the Building Coverage Ratio (BCR) from 30% to 40% and aspect ratio from 1/0.5 to 1/1.1 which decreased the UTCI and solar hours and increased the open spaces by 0.6, 1.3, and 48,999, respectively. Finally, this study introduces a novel automated framework for optimizing urban morphology to enhance thermal comfort, offering significant advancements in urban design strategies for arid and hot climates, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions like Egypt.