Evaluation of summer mean radiant temperature simulation in ENVI-met in a hot Mediterranean climate

ENVI-met is currently one of the most popular simulation tools of urban microclimates, used by researchers and designers alike. Yet, in recent years some concerns have been raised regarding the software's capability to accurately simulate the effects of solar irradiance on increased heat stress, especially in hot weather conditions. These concerns have eventually led to the implementation of a new radiation scheme in version 5 of the software. This study set out to evaluate whether this new scheme increased the software's accuracy in evaluating incoming shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes, expressed as Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), by comparing monitored and simulated summertime values at 60 locations. Our results show that while ENVI-met's new version improved MRT simulation accuracy, the software systematically underestimated the magnitude of MRT in both shaded and unshaded summer conditions. Our MRT evaluation resulted in an RMSE of 6.08 °C in the shade and 13.32 °C at locations fully exposed to solar radiation, which may result in inaccurate and less severe appreciation of outdoor heat stress, especially when outdoor shade is missing. Based on our analysis, we suggest that the origin of error may stem from inaccurate representation of longwave radiation fluxes emitted by ground surfaces. [Display omitted] •Version 5 of ENVI-met seemed to improve MRT simulation accuracy under hot conditions.•Nevertheless, ENVI-met consistently underestimated the effect of solar radiation on heat stress.•MRT accuracy was significantly lower in unshaded locations, compared with shaded locations.•ENVI-met results accurately represent the significant reduction in heat stress in the shade.•Calculation time may still be an impediment to wide adoption of ENVI-met in design processes.