Improving urban walkability in the face of climate change is a critical challenge for urban designers. Street design strategies can mitigate heat stress and enhance pedestrian livability. Most previous studies conducted in hot climates recommend adopting deep canyons to improve summer conditions, overlooking the potential improvement of wide streets as essential structural elements of the urban fabric. This study was conducted in Biskra city, southern Algeria, where several mitigation strategies were applied to ‘Emir Abdelkader Boulevard’, as the main structural street inside the city, to create an optimal street model for arid climates. Five scenarios were developed based on three criteria: (Sc1) asymmetric profile northeast side (NES) > southwest side (SWS); (Sc2) asymmetric profile SWS > NES; (Sc3) cool paving; (Sc4) horizontal shading; and(Sc5) shading with a linear tree arrangement. ENVI-met software version 5.1.1 and the RayMan model were used to estimate the local climate conditions and outdoor thermal comfort levels based on the physiological equivalent temperature (PET). All scenarios reduced PET values across the street, with optimal reductions of −2.0 °C, −3.1 °C, −1.3 °C, −1.7 °C, and −1.2 °C in Sc1, Sc2, Sc3, Sc4, and Sc5, respectively. Concerning pedestrian areas, the optimal results durations were at the southwest side below the arcades’ sidewalks during peak hours: Sc2, Sc3, Sc4, Sc5 (2.2 °C–3 H, 2.3 °C–3 H, 2.4 °C–3 H, 2.5 °C–2 H). Sc1 performed best during daytime hours on the northeast side. The utilizing of these results can strongly help urban planners and landscape architects in creating climate-responsive streets that enhance citizens’ quality of life.

Oases throughout the world have become important ecosystems to replenish food and water supplies. The Saharan Oases exist above the largest underground water supplies in the World. In North Africa, oases witness significantly growing populations in the oasis towns and receive thousands of tourists yearly. In oasis settlements, the majority of the population spends most of the time outdoors, in extremely hot conditions; however, few studies have investigated urban outdoor thermal comfort conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess thermal comfort in the Tolga Oasis Complex and test the validity of the ‘oasis effect’ concept. The methodology is based on comparative field measurement and calculation approaches in the heart of Tolga Palm Grove and in different urban settlements. Results indicate highest heat stress levels (Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) index) in the oases Palm Grove in July, PET = 41.7 °C, and urban settlements, PET = 40.9 °C. Despite the significant difference between the old and new settlement fabrics, our measurements and calculation did not identify any noticeable variation of thermal comfort. Thus, the oasis effect on the outdoor thermal comfort was insignificant (during July and August 2018). Finally, the study discusses ways to improve outdoor spaces design and relieve heat stress in the settlements of Tolga.

Engineers use double-skin façades (DSF) to lower the energy consumption of buildings as they can potentially control incoming wind speeds and the amount of solar heat gain. The purpose of this present study was to (1) evaluate the use of DSFs, (2) its efficacy in improving the energy performance of high-rise office buildings in the hot, dry summer climate of the Mediterranean, and (3) to develop an optimum DSF model for this climate based on industry standards and recommendations for high-performance DSF parameters. In order to determine the efficiency of DSFs, two distinct variables, building orientation and the number of DSFs used, were taken into consideration. This study adopted an experimental (generate and test) research design and used Autodesk^® Ecotect^® Analysis software to develop computer simulations with which to assess 15 single façades, juxtaposed façades, three façades, and four façades on cardinal orientations. The recorded energy consumption and savings were then compared with that of the reference model. The results indicated that the three DSF model, i.e., the S14 model, reduced energy consumption during heating by 28% and by 53.5% when cooling a high-rise office building located in the hot, dry summer climate of the Mediterranean (Csa).