Enhancing the Potential Cooling Benefits of Urban Water Bodies

A series of experimental studies has been conducted inside an outdoor scale model canopy, in Saitama, Japan, with the purpose of finding an effective design solution of water bodies for better urban thermal environment,. By modifying itsphysical properties, the present study shows a clear evidence of the mitigating capacity of urban water bodies. The result shows that generally,bigger pond has greater cooling benefits. Nevertheless,by lowering down the water temperature, the cooling benefit was improvedby 0.3 ˚C and 0.5 ˚C on average, as compared to natural water pond and no-pond condition, respectively.