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.在气候危机时代，探寻具备自然气候舒适度的地域，已成为解析环境与全球生活质量间相互作用的核心议题。对人类福祉与生产力产生影响的环境气候舒适度需求，可通过室内人工气候调控予以满足，但该方式会引发环境负担，并导致人类生活体验的人工化。本研究旨在探究全球范围内气候舒适度的分布差异，重点聚焦于开放（户外）环境。本研究结合空间气候数据库，构建并建模了一项全球调查，以从气温、空气湿度与自然光照三个维度评估户外气候舒适度。研究发现，气候舒适度最优的地域集中于高海拔的热带/赤道区域。本研究结合当前全球人口空间分布格局，以及人口动态的过去、现状与未来情景，对研究结果展开讨论，结果显示非洲萨赫勒地区与中东沙漠地带的国家正面临严峻的气候宜居困境。