A Study on Gender Differences in Outdoor Thermal Comfort on University Campus - A Field Study in Xi’an, China

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-782-3_4How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Outdoor thermal comfort; Universal thermal climate index (UTCI); Gender differences; University campus

Abstract

Urban high temperature has led to an increase in outdoor ambient temperature; this further affects people’s physical health and reduces their comfort level during outdoor activities. Research on outdoor thermal comfort can provide effective guidance for outdoor space planning and design. To this end, we investigated differences in thermal environment perception of young men and women in an outdoor environment of a university campus in northwest China, using meteorological monitoring and questionnaire survey. The results showed that: 1) the proportion of women who voted for “moderate” and “extremely uncomfortable” thermal comfort was higher than that of men. 2) The neutral universal thermal climate index (UTCI) (20.76 ℃) of males was lower than that of females (22.16 ℃). Male neutral UTCI range (14.96–26.56 ℃) was wider than that of females (16.78–27.45 ℃). The preferred UTCI (20.01 ℃) of men was lower than that of women (22.15 ℃). 3) Women used umbrellas substantially more than men during hot weather. During cold weather, women preferred to wear more clothes, whereas men preferred to drink hot water. Therefore, young men and women in northwest China presented different experiences and behaviors under the same outdoor thermal environment.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jin Zhang
AU  - Wenqiang Jing
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/04
TI  - A Study on Gender Differences in Outdoor Thermal Comfort on University Campus - A Field Study in Xi’an, China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 2nd International Conference on Urban Planning and Design (UPD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 32
EP  - 48
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-782-3_4
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-782-3_4
ID  - Zhang2025
ER  -