Urban Ventilation Conceptualization: Explaining Conceptual Models and Identification of Measurement Indicators

The issue of air pollution and the decline in the metropolitans’ air quality over the next 30 years will be one of the most catastrophic challenges and the leading cause of premature death worldwide. It seems that along with the booming growth of the urban population, physical changes which have been resulted from the use of traditional approaches in urban planning and design, have led to a decline in urban air quality.

By a comprehensive review of natural ventilation literature, the present study aims to provide a theoretical and operational framework for conceptualization and measuring the quality of urban natural ventilation in the local level (neighborhood and block).

Being a survey- case study research, the article intends to explain the main components of the concept of urban natural ventilation, to determine the factors affecting urban natural ventilation and the dimensions affected by urban ventilation (in the local level), in order to extract the general indicators for measuring the quality of natural ventilation in urban areas.

By presenting five effective factors on natural ventilation, and five affected areas of natural ventilation based on their scale, the conceptual model of the research which shows a comprehensive connection among the influential components has been provided. In addition, by using the Goeller evaluation matrix, 35 morphological indicators which have been extracted from the literature review have been ranked, and 10 main indicators have been selected as the first priorities to assess the condition of natural ventilation in urban areas.

Identifying the 10 morphological indicators, affecting natural ventilation, suggests that the application of these indicators for a ventilation-based urban development may conflict with some general development guidelines of other urban approaches such as Sustainability and the Compact City approach. Therefore, it appears necessary to conduct multifaceted solutions based on contextual circumstances.