Analysis of Outdoor Human Thermal Comfort within Three Major Cities in Egypt

In this study, two thermal comfort indices are employed to investigate outdoor human thermal comfort within three major cities of different climates in Egypt. The indices are: the Discomfort Index (DI), and the Robaa Index (RI). The three considered cities are: Alexandria which is located in the north of Egypt, Cairo which is located in the middle and Aswan city which is located in the south of Egypt. The estimations of the two indices are based on the mean wind data of the three cities, which covers the period from January 2010 to January 2011. The study results show that the thermal comfort indices values can be employed to evaluate climate differences in urban areas. The calculated indices showed that; although extreme climate conditions are not reached in Egypt in general, the climate in the north is milder than in the south. In addition, the study results show that the RI is more practical than DI in assessing the human thermal comfort in the outdoor environment.