Cooling strategies using thermal alliesthesia

a complementary approach to enhancing greenway walking comfort

Abstract

A favourable thermal environment along urban greenways supports public health and sustainability. In dense built-up areas, limited land availability makes it difficult to rely solely on high-quality green spaces for continuous greenway development. Planners are attempting to increase tree canopies along municipal roads, even under less than ideal conditions. The key challenge is how to improve thermal comfort for those walking along these road corridors. Combining a literature review and field investigation, this paper introduces thermal alliesthesia as a perspective that complements physical design. Existing strategies to improve thermal comfort in greenways focus on enhancing static environmental quality. In contrast, ‘thermal alliesthesia’ emphasises how changing subjective perception can shape thermal experience. The thermal alliesthesia effect can be triggered by variations in the physical environment. Taking Beijing’s Second Ring Road Greenway as a case study, this paper proposes route planning and landscape design for urban greenways as strategies to elicit this effect. It describes the detailed design of a representative section of the greenway to demonstrate how this concept can be applied. This approach is adaptable across climate zones, provided designers develop flexible, site-specific solutions. The findings offer practical insights for greenway planning and design in complex urban contexts.