A global investigation of outdoor climate comfort

In the era of climate crisis, the search for places with natural climate comfort becomes a crucial element in understanding the interaction between the environment and global quality of life. The search for climatic comfort in the environment, influencing human well-being and productivity, can be satisfied by indoor artificial climate control; however, this generates environmental impacts and an artificialization of human life experience. This study explores how climatic comfort varies across the world, specifically in open (outdoor) environments. A global survey was developed and modelled together with spatial climate databases to assess outdoor climatic comfort regarding temperature, air humidity, and natural lighting. The most comfortable places are in tropical/equatorial regions in high altitude. The results are discussed in the face of the current spatial distribution of population in the world, and the past, current, and future scenarios of demographic dynamics, showing a critical situation for countries in African Sahel and Middle Orient deserts.