A novel machine learning-based framework for mapping outdoor thermal comfort

ABSTRACT Rapid urbanization and global warming have increased heat stress in urban areas. This in turn makes using indoor space more compelling and leads to more energy consumption. Therefore, paying attention to outdoor spaces design with thermal comfort in mind becomes more important since outdoor spaces can host a variety of activities. This research aims to introduce a machine learning-based framework to predict the effects of different urban configurations (i.e. different greening configurations and types, different façade materials, and different urban geometry) on outdoor thermal comfort through training a pix2pix Convolutional generative adversarial network (cGAN) model. For the training of the machine learning model, a dataset consisting of 208 coupled pictures of input and output has been created. The simulation of this data has been carried out by ENVI-met. The resulting machine learning model had a Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) of 96% on the test dataset with the highest SSIM of 97.08 and lowest of 94.43 which shows the high accuracy of the model and it could have reached an answer in 3 s compared to the 30-min average time for ENVI-met simulation. The resulting model shows great promise for assisting researchers and urban designers in studying existing urban contexts or planning new developments. HIGHLIGHTS Machine learning use in outdoor thermal comfort assessment has been investigated. Vegetation, urban geometry, surface albedo, and water bodies have been studied parameters. Vegetation and street orientation have the highest and water bodies have the least impact on outdoor thermal comfort. Pix2pix algorithm implementation could create thermal comfort maps with 96% SSIM.