TITLE:
Residents’ Satisfaction Assessment of Outdoor Residential Spaces; A Local Study in an Urban Compact Form in Sana’a, Yemen—Winter Period
AUTHORS:
Samira Saleh Hussein AlShawesh
KEYWORDS:
Thermal Performance, Outdoor Residential Spaces, Sana’a Old City, Modern City, Winter Period, Field Measurements, Assessment, Residents’ Satisfaction
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.6,
June
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: This paper studies the thermal performance of outdoor residential spaces
in the old part—historical part—of Sana’a city
in the winter period and its impact on the residents’ satisfaction who occupied
the buildings which overlook these spaces and use them on a pedestrian comfort
basis. The analysis was carried out through the results of field measurements
which study the temperature, relative humidity, and the air movement inside the
selected outdoor spaces in the period of winter (2 months) data recorded
through the devices used and compared with those obtained from the General
Authority of Meteorology and Aviation—Meteorology
Sector. Despite the passage of years, the author remained occupied with
the opinion of the people whose homes overlook those outdoors spaces and what
is their opinion of their performance. Therefore, an assessment was conducted
in November 2020 to know the opinion of the people about the performance of
these outdoor spaces and to compare the results of the field measurements with
the results of the assessment. The measurements were conducted by using
data-loggers that spread in some outdoor spaces in 7 spaces in old city of Sana’a and
in its modern extension during the winter period which is the time of concern
of this work. The measurements showed that the outdoor residential spaces in
the old city of Sana’a are represented an advantage for winter climate over that of the modern
city, so the focus in this paper was on that outdoors with the question of the
users of the outdoor spaces in the old city only to clarify their satisfaction
with it and whether it has succeeded as well from their point of view. Results presented in this paper are important to
consider the relationship between the climatical performance of outdoor
spaces and the comfort of the residents in the urban environment and give
implications for urban planners and
architects to improve the climate-based design methodology towards sustainable
developments.