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Urban parks alter regional microclimates and considerably mitigate the urban thermal environment. However, studies on the coupled cooling effects of parks and surrounding building morphologies are limited, and previous microclimate simulations are scarcely generalizable to cities. Therefore, based on an improved microclimate framework integrating remote sensing data with ENVI-met model, this study quantified the spatiotemporal cooling effect and energy saving potential generated by a representative park and surrounding building morphologies during a summer day in Beijing, China. The results showed that the morphologies of the surrounding buildings notably affected the cooling effect. The cooling effect affects the microclimate above the average building height. Additionally, considering the building morphological attributes surrounding all parks in the central urban area of Beijing, the spatial distribution of the cooling effect was not strongly and strongly influenced by the building density and average height, respectively; whereas, the accumulated energy saving potential had the opposite effect. Energy savings at different heights varied with surrounding building morphologies and exhibited a significant non-linear negative correlation with height. This study highlights the practical implications of integrating remote sensing data with microclimate evaluation framework and provides new perspectives and insights into urban thermal mitigation strategies.
Meng et al. (Wed,) studied this question.