An Analysis of Thermal Comfort in a School’s Outdoor Space: A Case Study of a Typical School, Dubai, UAE

Outdoor school spaces are significant, as they provide great opportunities for outdoor exploration, leading to the overall enhancement of a student’s well-being. This paper analyzes the outdoor school spaces in Dubai to optimize them and ensure their thermal comfort. To achieve this aim, using a mixed methodology approach of survey, field observation, workshops and ENVI-met V5.3 software simulation, the existing outdoor spaces were analyzed and then enhanced using several proposed heat mitigation strategies. The improved outcome was evaluated using Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), revealing that strategies such as vegetation, shade, green facades/roofs and small water features resulted in a 5% to 25% reduction in PET depending on the corresponding location being analyzed. The results obtained provide insight and guidelines for school designers and school board members on how to evaluate and enhance outdoor spaces to ensure they are thermally comfortable. The discussion includes the limitations of the study, as well as comparisons to current research and the scope for future studies.