Exploring outdoor thermal comfort perception of tourists and locals inside a historic fort of a desert city using mixed method approach

Climate change risks are disrupting the functioning of urban ecosystems. Developing countries are more susceptible to it due to poor infrastructure and lack of efficient resource management. The situation is especially complex in areas with extreme weather conditions. Keeping this in consideration, we seek to explore the conditions of human biometeorology in Jaisalmer, India (hot-arid climate) using mixed method approach by exploring Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC). Jaisalmer, situated on the Thar desert, is a highly populated town, prominent tourist destination and a UNESCO world heritage site. We conducted a detailed thermal comfort perception survey inside the nine centuries old, fortified settlement during a Winter month with maximum tourist footfall with samples catering to both tourists and locals to capture the differences in thermal comfort perception, sensation, and acceptable ranges. The results show relative significance of different variables impacting the comfort perception for tourists and locals. Our results show behavioral acclimatization and duration of exposure play an important role in impacting the perception. We further discuss urban design recommendations to improve the thermal comfort for both tourists and locals considering the heritage aspect of the precinct. Our research highlights the importance of alliesthesia in one such context. The inferences obtained from this study would be useful for designing guidelines for proposing tourist circuits and routes for heritage precincts to ensure thermally comfortable spaces throughout the tour.