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Analysis of institutional authors

Higueras García EAuthor

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June 25, 2019
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Urban microclimate and thermal comfort modelling: Strategies for urban renovation

Publicated to: International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development. 7 (1): 22-37 - 2016-01-02 7(1), DOI: 10.1080/2093761X.2016.1152204

Authors:

Tumini I; Higueras García E; Baereswyl Rada S
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Affiliations

Universidad del Bio Bio - Author
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author

Abstract

© 2016 Taylor & Francis. The urban microclimate plays an important role in building energy consumption and thermal comfort in outdoor spaces. Nowadays, cities need to increase energy efficiency, reduce pollutant emissions and mitigate the evident lack of sustainability. In light of this, attention has focused on the bioclimatic concepts use in the urban development. However, the speculative unsustainability of the growth model highlights the need to redirect the construction sector towards urban renovation using a bioclimatic approach. The public space plays a key role in improving the quality of today’s cities, especially in terms of providing places for citizens to meet and socialize in adequate thermal conditions. Thermal comfort affects perception of the environment, so microclimate conditions can be decisive for the success or failure of outdoor urban spaces and the activities held in them. For these reasons, the main focus of this work is on the definition of bioclimatic strategies for existing urban spaces, based on morpho-typological components, urban microclimate conditions and comfort requirements for all kinds of citizens. Two case studies were selected in Madrid, in a social housing neighbourhood constructed in the 1970s based on Rational Architecture style. Several renovation scenarios were performed using a computer simulation process based in ENVI-met and diverse microclimate conditions were compared. In addition, thermal comfort evaluation was carried out using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) in order to investigate the relationship between microclimate conditions and thermal comfort perception. This paper introduces the microclimate computer simulation process as a valuable support for decision-making for neighbourhood renovation projects in order to provide new and better solutions according to the thermal quality of public spaces and reducing energy consumption by creating and selecting better microclimate areas.
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Keywords

MicroclimateNeighbourhood eco-efficiencyOutdoorThermal comfortUrban

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development, Q3 Agency Scopus (SJR), its regional focus and specialization in Building and Construction, give it significant recognition in a specific niche of scientific knowledge at an international level.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.01, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-26, the following number of citations:

  • Scopus: 37
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-26:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 168.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 167 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/40466/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 476
  • Downloads: 1,808
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Chile.

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