THE BEHAVIOR AND OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT OF URBAN CANYONS IN DIFFERENT WEFT AND GEOMORPHOLOGIES OF MENDOZA, ARGENTINA

This research was carried out in the Mendoza Metropolitan Area (MMA), a city with an arid climate and two different geomorphological contexts. The objective is to analyze the relationship between the behavior and outdoor thermal comfort of urban canyons (UC) located on flatland and hillsides. To this end, six UC were selected in three urban layouts (grid, organic and cul-de-sac) and monitored. The results regarding thermal behavior indicate that the grid UC is hotter on hillsides than on flatland; the cul-de-sac UC is hotter on flatland than on hillsides; and the organic UC has the highest maximum temperature but the coolest minimum temperature on flatland. In terms of outdoor thermal comfort, the grid UC on flatland reaches 30%, and in the hillside area 20%; and the organic UC on the hillside reaches 3 0%, and in the flatland area 20%. The case with the best habitability was the cul-de-sac UC on the hillside, with thermal comfort reaching 70%, while only 20% in the cul-de-sac UC on flatland. This shows that the outdoor thermal behavior and comfort of the UCs in the same urban layout have different behaviors according to the geomorphology of their location.