MICROCLIMATIC REGULATION OF PALM TREES IN SEMI-ARID ENVIRONMENT DURING HEAT STRESS

Abstract

Vegetation affects the urban microclimate in different ways, including shading, aspersing the humidity and controlling the wind velocity. In urban areas, microclimatic regulation depends on a number of features such as type and ratio of vegetation. This paper investigates the microclimatic regulation of palm trees in semi-arid environment during heat stress. El Nakhlette Street located in Guelma, Algeria has been selected to conduct the investigation, we measured air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity during the hottest period of 2019.The study simulates four scenarios of El Nakhlette space in hot season with different ratio and type of vegetation using Envi-met model. The index PMV has been used to measure the heat stress levels. The findings show that palm trees as an evergreen type have the lesser microclimatic regulation and it is not the most suitable type to semi-arid environment.