Study On The Applicability Of Urban Spatial Morphology Indicators For Block Ventilation Research

With the development of urbanization, the urban population and the number ofinfrastructure surging significantly caused the problems as the increasing waste heat, theurban heat island and the deterioration of urban environment and so on. Besides,unreasonable block planning hindering the ventilation in street canyon which is helpful tospeed up heat radiatiating makes the situation worse. Meanwhile, the wind condition is animportant parameter related to human body comfort, particularly in hot summer and coldwinter zone that is represented by Wuhan City. According to the extensive work donebefore, it is imperative to research the optimal relationship between the urban spatialmorphology and the urban wind environment.However, prior to this study, selecting an evaluation index system that could describethe transformation of block form precisely and have a good relativity with the changingmean wind speed aroused by the former, that is a reasonable breakthrough point forexploring the relationship between the block form and the wind environment, is necessary.While urban spatial morphology indicator system, as an important subject, has beenstudied thoroughly, mostly from a qualitative angle not a quantitative one. And even ifthere were quantitative indicators, such as fractal dimension, shape index and compactness,they are mainly used for describing and predicting the expansion of urban land.Consequently, this paper intends to find proper indicator systems and to disscuss on theapplicability of them for block ventilation research.