From street level to science: advancing methods for climate walks to improve human thermal comfort

Abstract

Urban heat risk is increasing, while fixed monitoring networks remain too sparse and coarse to resolve the pedestrian-scale variability, especially radiative loads, that governs outdoor thermal stress. This short communication advances the concept of climate walks, defined as route-based, human-centred field campaigns that build on earlier work on “thermal walks”, and presents them as a practice-ready methodology for design-relevant evidence. We define climate walks as structured, route-based, georeferenced assessments that pair high-resolution mobile microclimate measurements with synchronous in-situ human responses to capture transient, spatially heterogeneous conditions along actual walks. We synthesize key methodological features, such as dynamic, stop-and-go protocols; human-centred sensing; multisensory extensions; accessible kits from research-grade to low-cost platforms; and emerging diagnostics, and show how these produce actionable design measures. We discuss limitations and challenges, including lags and thermal memory, instrumentation and, index choice under transients, and the need for protocol harmonization. We then propose a research agenda to investigate dynamic conditions of outdoor thermal comfort, develop time-resolved, memory-aware comfort metrics, test indices under motion, mainstream multisensory models, and shift practice from isolated cool spots to connected, route-scale cool sequences. Together, these steps link biometeorology to actionable urban planning and design for heat-resilient, attractive public spaces.

Bibliographic Information