Impacts of landscape and vegetation design on heat stress and skin burn risks in private backyards and front yards

The research questions of this study were: i) What design factors influence the air temperature and human thermal stress in backyards and front yards? ii) Do private yards dominated by vegetated surfaces have significantly lower mean radiant temperatures compared to yards dominated by unvegetated surfaces (artificial turf, mulch, and timber decking)? iii) Do unvegetated surfaces (artificial turf, mulch, and timber decking) pose a risk of skin burns under hot weather conditions? "Frontyards_microclimate.csv" and "Backyards_microclimate.csv"These two files contain continuous microclimate measurements at the front yards and backyards of nine residential properties in a master-planned estate in Donnybrook, Victoria, Australia. The microclimate measurements included air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and black globe temperature at 1.1 m above ground surface. These four variables were measured every 10 s and the 5-minute averages were logged. Mean radiant temeprature and Universal Thermal Climate Index were calculated from the four variables. The measurements were conducted for three warm-hot sunny days (2024-02-20 to 2024-02-22)."Backyards_MRT_Tsfc.csv"This file contains short-term (10 min) measurements at the backyards of four residential properties in the same estate. The measurements included shortwave and longwave radiant fluxes from the three directions (ground, lateral, and sky) at 1.5 m above ground surface. Ground surface temperatures were also measured. These variables were measured every 10 s and the 1-minute averages were logged. The radiant fluxes were used to calculate their individual contributions to mean radiant temperatures. The measurements were conducted on two hot sunny afternoons on 2024-02-04 and 2024-02-11.Contact person: Dr Paul Cheung ([e-mail])