CFD Simulations and on-site measurements of urban microclimate in a real compact urban area

The urban population has reached the highest number ever recorded. Based on recent studies, this number is going to increase even further, with strong consequences for the urban microclimate. In this perspective, the analysis of microclimatic conditions in the urban environment is getting more significant. This study analyzes microclimatic conditions in a real urban area. The real compact inhomogeneous urban area under study is located in Nicosia old town, in Cyprus. High-resolution Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed based on the 3D unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations to assess the air temperature, surface temperatures and wind speed distributions. The CFD results are compared with on-site measurements for the same area. The results show that CFD can predict air temperatures in compact real urban areas, with an average deviation of approximately 7%. Based on the results, conclusions are going to be made regarding microclimatic conditions in the case study area.