Meta-analysis of outdoor thermal comfort surveys in different European cities using the RUROS database: The role of background climate and gender

Systematic comparisons of subjective thermal assessments among different geographical locations and between different genders are quite limited. This paper presents a meta-analysis using the data of comprehensive European outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) surveys. The aim is to reveal the common traits and the major differences regarding the subjective thermal perception and sun preference of residents in different European cities while taking great emphasis on the role of genders. The analysis relies on the RUROS (Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces) project which was conducted in seven European cities, and the Hungarian OTC project. Only acclimatized local residents were considered to reflect the geographical and possibly cultural differences among the population of the investigated cities. The resulted neutral temperature values – expressed in terms of Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) and determined by means of regression analysis – showed strong correlation with the long-term climatic characteristics, and narrower neutral zone was found at those locations where the annual temperature amplitude was small. Inhabitants of sunny and warm cities did not prefer more sunshine even when the actual sunshine value was low, while where the annual amount of sunshine was low the people showed greater sun preference. European women were found to perceive the thermal conditions as neutral under slightly warmer conditions than men and showed greater sensitivity to the changes of the environmental conditions. This was evidenced by narrower neutral PET zone of females and stronger correlation between their sun preference and the actual value of solar radiation.