Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

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Building and Environment

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An evaluation of outdoor and building environment cooling achieved through

combination modication of trees with ground materials
Mohd Fairuz Shahidan a, b, *, Phillip J. Jones b, Julie Gwilliam b, Elias Salleh c
a

Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Design & Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, CF10 3NB, United Kingdom
c
Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 30 April 2012
Received in revised form
9 July 2012
Accepted 25 July 2012

This study focuses on the optimum cooling effect of trees with ground materials modication in mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) and the benets towards building energy performance in tropical
climate. The modication focused on both physical properties e i.e. tree canopy density and quantity;
and the albedo values of ground materials. Two phases of methodology were developed and applied
using eld measurement and computer simulation. This study measured the average monthly UHI
intensity found to be 2.6  C. In mitigating its impact, higher levels of tree canopy density (LAI 9.7)
coupled with cool materials (albedo of 0.8) produced the largest urban air temperature reduction.
Simulations predicted an average air temperature reduction of 2.7  C when compared with the current
condition. Further, both modications were found to produce a potential building cooling load reduction
of up to 29%. In fact, the optimum improvement of both outdoor and indoor environment was inuenced
by three major physical factors, namely, larger tree quantity, higher canopy density and cool materials.
Thus, it is suggested that appropriate guidelines, inuencing implementation of these improvements
could be implemented in order to mitigate the UHI effect in tropical climate.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Urban heat island mitigation
Tree canopy density and quantity
Cool pavement
Outdoor and indoor air temperature
Optimum cooling effect
Building energy savings

1. Introduction
The main causes of the urban heat island phenomenon are
recognized to be the consequences of increased urbanization and
abrupt changes in the outdoor environment. These temperature
rises in the urban environment are caused by the changes of street
surface materials and reduction of green areas [1]. The variety of
urban grids and buildings generate a wide range of different streets,
squares, courts and open spaces that further modify local climate
into urban microclimates [2]. In addition, the introduction of
concrete buildings has crowded out vegetation and trees [3].
Consequently, heat islands contribute to human discomfort, health
problems, higher energy bills and increased pollution [4]. In
temperate climate, the maximum urban heat island effect can be
found only during the summer season. However, in the tropics it
can be found during hot dry season and anytime in a year due to the
high exposure to solar radiation throughout the year [5,6]. This

* Corresponding author. Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Design

& Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel.: 6 03 89464082; fax: 6 03 89464005.
E-mail address: mfsco1@yahoo.com (M.F. Shahidan).
0360-1323/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.07.012

phenomenon has become serious in the tropics where inadequate

shading and green spaces are unable to intercept and balance the
heat from direct solar gains. Further, the typical use of dark materials in buildings and pavements collects and traps more of the
suns energy. This has lead to air and surface temperature increases
with consequent inuence on human thermal comfort and building
energy consumption in the tropics.
In order to mitigate the impact there are two main strategies
that have been proposed to improve the microclimate in tropical
urban environments especially at street level; more vegetation and
higher albedo [7e9]. According to Akbari et al. [8] most of the
summer heat islands are created by the lack of vegetation and the
high solar radiation absorptions at urban surfaces. On the other
hand, it is claimed that urban trees and high-albedo surfaces can
offset or reverse the heat island effect. However, in warmer climate
condition the cooling effect of urban trees is more prominent [7].
Thus, shading from trees and evapotranspiration process are
prime factors that contribute to cooling effect. Apart from moderating the outdoor microclimate and human thermal comfort,
Givoni [10] has claimed that the type and features of the plants
around the building can affect cooling despite its exposure to the
sun and the wind. Nevertheless, those effects vary from tree species
to tree species as well as from tree to tree within the same species.

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M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

This type of study have been lacking in tropical regions both in

terms of eld measurement as well as modelling approaches.
Variation in cooling effects from different types of trees with
different physical properties needs to be determined in order to
understand the absolute cooling effect to the urban environment.
In order to support the cooling effect of trees, the use of high albedo
materials can reduce absorption of solar radiation through urban
ground surface and building envelopes and keep their surfaces
cooler [3,11,12]. The impact will be more effective when tree
shading is used to reduce the radiative exchange process of ground
and wall surfaces by intercepting the radiant energy. More latent
heat will be released causing evaporative cooling of the air [13].
This condition is believed to offer better ambience on both outdoor
and indoor environment through optimum cooling. Thus, it is
important to evaluate the impact of modication of both physical
properties, on the mitigation of the UHI effect as well as on the
improvement of building energy performance.
2. Physical properties modication of tree canopy and
ground material
Trees thermal performance, shade effectiveness and evapotranspiration are based on the density of a tree canopy. The thermal
performance and shade effectiveness depend on the foliage characteristics as well as a trees mature shape; i.e. total height and
canopy geometry [2,14]. Trees can have some effect on microclimate modications; however, their most important effect is in
modifying solar radiation and terrestrial radiation from the ground
through the creation of shade [11,15,16]. The amount of radiation
intercepted depends on the density of the canopies, and may vary
across species [11]. Hence, this element would contribute to
ltering the amount of light and radiation [16]. It has been proven
by Kotzen [16] that light is reduced up to 95% in areas of shade
caused by higher canopy density, especially in shaded areas or close
to tree trunks. Thus, the quality of tree shade can be determined
through the solidness of shadow and the actual light transmitted
underneath the canopy can be directly evaluated.
In addition, a previous background study has shown that high
density foliage cover and a multiple layer arrangement of branches
and twigs is important in providing the best radiation ltration in
a tree canopy; typically up to 93% radiation interception [14]. In
fact, types, sizes and arrangements of leaves play an important role
in improving efciency in radiation absorption and reection. This
is commonly related to the leaf area index (LAI), which is dened as
a dimensionless value of the leaf area per unit of ground area. It is
the key measure used to understand and compare plant canopies
[14,15,17e20]. By calculating this value, plant canopies across tree
species, and across trees within a species, can be compared and
evaluated. In addition, incoming radiation ltration is well correlated with LAI values and these evaluation methods can be used in
determining the density of a tree canopy.
In respect to LAI values, the study found that the impacts of
trees, especially those with larger LAIs, were remarkable. Trees with
high density (LAI 6.1) produced only 7% radiant heat underneath
the canopy, whilst trees with low density (mean LAI 1.5)
produced 21% of radiant heat. Thus, a higher density tree canopy
that produces a low amount of radiant heat will result in the lowest
amount of terrestrial radiation underneath the canopy [16]. This
condition will promote evapotranspiration, and the production of
more latent heat helps decrease the surrounding air temperature
and increase relative humidity. By warming the air less, cooling
benets can be obtained through high quality shade creation and
incoming solar radiation interception. In other words, trees with
high foliage density and multiple layers of branching are recommended to maximize the radiation interception and greatly modify

the thermal heat underneath the canopy and surrounding area. In

fact, the greater the amount of tree may correlate with further
improvement in microclimate.
Besides, the cooling effect will be much greater when the
amount of incoming solar radiation that reaches the ground can be
controlled by any materials underneath the canopy. The incoming
solar radiation reaching the earths surface is subjected to reection, absorption and transmission, dependant on the nature of the
receiving surface. Generally, there are two signicant factors of
equal importance: the albedo, the ratio of the amount of light reected from a material to the amount of light shining on the
material, and the emissivity, the ratio of heat radiated by
a substance to the heat radiated by a blackbody at the same
temperature [21]. The former factor governs the absorption of solar
radiation and the latter controls the release of long-wave radiation
to the surroundings. Note that an object with a high albedo (near 1)
is very bright and an object that has a low albedo (near 0) is dark.
The cool materials that are characterized by high reectivity and
high emissivity values can very perceptibly optimize the cooling
effect in the urban environment. Firstly, the cool material can
reduce the temperatures of urban hard surfaces by absorbing less
incident solar radiation. In fact, less long-wave heat will be released
back to the surroundings and lower ambient temperatures can be
achieved. Second, the generation of smog can be reduced due to the
lower temperature induced by cool materials and nally, buildings
can experience extended lifetimes because they are not so readily
stressed by excessive heat [21].
In the case of maximizing the cooling effect, the reduction of
temperatures due to less absorption of solar radiation underneath
the canopy is of prime importance. In this respect, high quality
shade trees are an important factor in the radiative exchange
process of ground surfaces. Shading that can intercept and store
heat from direct solar gains can lead to signicant reductions in
urban surface temperatures. The total radiation absorbed at a site
can be manipulated by shading or changing the solar reectivity
(albedo) of objects. However, it can be noted that a combination of
shading and the high reectivity of a material could improve the
cooling effect. As a result, this will decrease the intercepted solar
radiation, reducing the absorption of excessive radiation, increasing
evapotranspiration process and nally lowering the surrounding
air and surface temperature.
3. Material and methods
The methods used in this study consist of the following: (i)
a programme of eld measurement; and (ii) computer simulation.
The programme of eld measurement was designed to measure the
current microclimate conditions and the outcome of this work was
used to provide a basic validation for the computer simulation. The
computer simulation was designed to simulate and validate the
actual current condition and to predict the modication effects
from three different proposal scenarios by using ENVI-met
modelling. As a second stage, the HTB2 software package was
used to investigate the impact of the proposed outdoor microclimate modication on energy savings of an individual building,
using a building selected during the eld measurement phase.
3.1. Study site location and climatic descriptions
This study was carried out on Persiaran Perdana, a public thoroughfare or boulevard measuring 4200 m long  100 m wide in the
new federal administrative centre, Putrajaya, Malaysia. It is surrounded by a huge man-made lake that creates an island and is
divided into three major precincts e i.e. Precinct 2, 3 and 4 (Fig. 1).
The area is located 25 km south of the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

247

Fig. 1. Twelve location points for eld measurement with different landscape environments and one weather station location point. Source: Authors screenshot of Google Earth
from August 25, 2008.

Lumpur (Lat. 2 550 N, Long. 101420 E). The climate is hot and humid
with an annual average temperature of 26.1  C (with an average
maximum of 27.5  C and minimum 25  C), annual average relative
humidity of 62.6%, an average of 6.1 h of sunlight per day and
4.39 kW h m2 of annually average solar irradiation. Generally, the
wind is light and variable with speeds ranging from 0 to 7.5 m/s, but
wind movement is still weak and sometimes can be static.
3.2. Field measurement programme
The eld measurement programme was designed to measure air
temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (RH%) using Tiny Tag TGP4500 Ultra and TGU-4500 Plus portable data logger (with the
same operating range 25 to 85  C/0e100% RH) at twelve (12)
selected locations. This equipment was used together with additional instruments such as Stevenson screens to provide solar cover.
Ten (10) numbers Tiny Tag data loggers contained in Stevenson
screens were installed on lighting posts, with a further two no. on
tree trunks, all at about 3 m height above the ground. The whole
area was divided into three major environmental conditions such
as green areas, open hard surface areas and mixed environment
areas with division of spots areas (Table 1). Data based on the study
of satellite images, data from Perbadanan Putrajaya and eld
observation were compared with data obtained from a weather
station located on the roof top of the Perbadanan Putrajaya
building. The weather station records ve weather parameters: air
temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, wind direction and
solar radiation, in order to evaluate the current environment.
Output data from the weather station was required as a basic
meteorology setting in simulating the current climate condition

using ENVI-met. Both sets of instruments (Tiny Tags and the

weather station) were congured to record data at an interval of
5 min and were calibrated before being operated on site. In addition, surface temperature (Ts) readings were collected at 1 h
interval by using one unit of handheld Meterman IR608 Infrared
Thermometer in order to record the surface temperature behaviour
Table 1
Major landscape environments and selected location points for measurement.
Location
number

Name of areas

1
2
3

Wawasan Park
Mahkamah
Perbadanan

4
5

Putra Square
P3P Road

Rakyat Square

Open Space

8
9

P2N Road
Perdana Boulevard

10

Wisma Tani Entrance

11

Wisma Tani Buildings

Pedestrian Area
Tunku Abdul Rahman
Road
Weather Station

12
13

Landscape environment and

location points
I e Green areas
Dense greenery area
Average dense greenery area
Sparse greenery Area
II e Open hard surface areas
High density hard surface
High density hard surface
(parking area e asphalt)
Mixture of surface area
(grass and pavement)
Grass and bare land
III e Mix environment areas
Near water body
Boulevard e pedestrian area
(no vegetation)
Building entrance (no vegetation
but with building shades
Boulevard e pedestrian area (with
vegetation)
Water front and hard surfaces
Roof top

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M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

of different surface materials. All measurements were taken at

approximately 1 m height from the objects. The eld measurements were conducted from 1st February to 3rd March 2009.
However, after all measurements were taken during the specied
period, one day was chosen (i.e. February 28, 2009) for subsequent
computer programme validation and simulations. The day was
selected according to weather type over a 24 h-period (i.e. Rainy or
Clear Days), data error, reliability and a sufcient amount of data
output from the eld measurement. As Malaysias climate is relatively uniform tropical hot and humid climate throughout the
whole year, the selected day is signicantly considered as clear
typical day for the whole year. Finally, based on the eld
measurement conducted in one month of February 2009, the UHI
intensity in this area was found to be within the magnitude of
2.6  C.
3.3. ENVI-met 3.1 numerical modelling
As the main focus of the paper is to study the impact of
combination modication of trees density and albedo materials can
be, assessed and evaluated; plant, surface and air interaction
modelling is essential. Therefore, a numerical simulation such as
ENVI-met is signicantly considered. ENVI-met [22] is a nonhydrostatic prognostic model of thermal interactions based on
the fundamental laws of uid dynamics and heat transfer and is
a much improved package over a CFD package only for uid
dynamics simulation [15]. It has the almost complete ability to
simulate built environments from the microclimate to local climate
scale at any location, regardless of overestimation due to uncalculating soil heat storage [23], global radiation overestimation
by day and underestimation of nocturnal cooling by night [20]. The
model simulates the microclimatic dynamics within a 24-h cycle
considers all exchange processes including temperature and
humidity, wind velocity, radiation uxes, turbulence and mean
radiant temperature. The vegetation is not only handled as a porous
obstacle to wind and solar radiation, but also through inclusion of
the physiological processes of evapotranspiration, photosynthesis
and sensible heat ux from the vegetation into the air [15,22]. It is
also possible for the model to handle the energy budget at the
ground surface. These preference factors are required in order to
full the aim of this study. ENVI-met is competently used in literature and validated for assessing the built environment
[1,15,23e25].
3.3.1. Validation of the ENVI-met modelling results
In order to validate the accuracy of the model, one clear day
was selected at random, February 28, 2009, for this experiment. As
the air temperature and ground surface temperature were the
main concerns in the overall condition of tropical urban climate,
the above results were compared with simulated results obtained
with ENVI-met. The main simulation conditions were based on the
eld measurement on that day, whilst plant database and building
properties used for the case studies reported in this work are
based on data obtained from Perbadanan Putrajaya [26]. The base
model domain simulated is constructed based on satellite images,
building documents and data from Perbadanan Putrajaya [26]. The
domain was representative of the current conditions of the 4.2 km
Persiaran Perdana and designated within 250  250  30 grids
input dimension and dx, dy and dz 20 m grid cell size due to the
large scale of the area. However, due to limitation of simulation
time constraints and the aim of the study to evaluate the impact of
trees and ground materials in large urban scale area, the effect of
small structures that affect environment were not evaluated. Thus,
only the main elements such tree and ground surface were
considered. Due to large scale of grid cell, direct shading effect of

trees were not evaluated, indeed, the indirect effect was the major
concern. In the preliminary simulations, both the average air and
surface temperature were underestimated. Thus, some of the
input data from the weather station had to be calibrated in order
to achieve a better correlation with the measured results. The
results showed that air temperature and surface temperature was
inuenced by wind speed. Based on the model interpretations,
this may be due to the high wind speed causing high volume of
cool energy, simultaneously cooling the surrounding air. Thus, this
shows that diurnal amplitude tends to increase with decreases in
wind speed. This is similar to adjustment problems experienced in
Spangenbergs [23] study where it became necessary to nd
a better correlation with measured results due to the wind speed
input. It is noted that the measured wind speed varied strongly in
direction and speed throughout the whole day. Therefore, in order
to adjust the air and surface temperature curve, the average mean
wind speed measured was changed from 2.1 m/s to 1.1 m/s. The
initial temperature was increased by 2  C in order to obtain
a better correlation between measured and computed temperature. Considering the complexity of the three dimensional environment, ENVI-met was found to represent the trends of air and
ground surface temperature well, the 24 h average error was
found to be at 0.1  Ce0.8  C for air temperature and from 0.1  C to
1.5  C for ground surface temperature, respectively. In fact, similar
24 h air temperature curves were achieved with the calculated
correlation coefcient, R2, between measured and computed for
measurement point ranging from 0.860 to 0.975 for both
parameters (Table 2). Thus, it has been shown that the measured
and computed ENVI-met was correlated and dependable in presenting the current air and ground surface temperature of Persiaran Perdana.
3.3.2. Development of proposed scenarios
Besides the current condition, three scenarios were designed in
order to compare and predict the optimum cooling potential made
by vegetation and ground material modications. Thus, the basic
input congurations as presented in Table 3 are used throughout all
of the simulations to enable conrmation that the cause of modication was genuinely made by vegetation and ground materials.
The scenarios were as follows:
(A) Current condition;

Table 2
Correlation coefcients and average error between the measured and the computed
air and ground surface temperatures for each location in 24 h period.
Environment
Location points

1. Wawasan Park
2. Mahkamah
3. Perbadanan
4. Putra Square
5. P3P Road
6. Rakyat Square
7. Open space
8. P2N Road
9. Perdana Boulevard
10. Wisma Tani
Entrance
11. Wisma Tanis
Pedestrian Area
12. Tunku Abdul
Rahman Road

Air temperature

Ground surface
temperature

Correlation
coefcient (R2)

Average
error ( C)

Correlation
coefcient (R2)

Average
error ( C)

0.956
0.975
0.972
0.970
0.958
0.970
0.965
0.923
0.959
0.933

0.8
0.5
0.2
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.6
0.1
0.2
0.3

0.919
0.860
0.972
0.973
0.973
0.969
0.952
0.972
0.971
0.972

0.7
0.5
0.1
1.0
0.6
0.0
0.5
0.9
0.9
0.5

0.905

0.1

0.969

0.6

0.957

0.5

0.970

1.5

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

Table 3
Summarize table on the changes made in each scenario condition proposed.
Conditions

Tree Mean LAI

Mean Albedo Values

Current medium
density tree

Low
density
tree

High
density
tree

High density tree

with high albedo

2.4
0.3e0.4

0.9
0.3e0.4

9.7
0.3e0.4

9.7
0.8

Tree quantities

Current

Add tree

Increase (%)

1. Wawasan Park
2. Mahkamah
3. Perbadanan
4. Putra Square
5. P3P Road
6. Rakyat Square
7. Open space
8. P2N Road
9. Perdana Boulevard
10. Wisma Tani
Entrance
11. Wisma Tanis
Pedestrian Area
12. Tunku Abdul
Rahman Road
13. Other Areas

90
28
36
20
0
64
4
28
0
0

0
0
0
30
124
22
288
36
4
0

0
0
0
60%
100%
35%
98%
56%
100%
0

10

10

30

75%

4810

4502

94%

Total

5,100

5,036

99%

(B) Double the amount of trees and changes to a low canopy

density trees (LAI 0.9) with current ground material albedo
conditions;
(C) Double the amount of trees and changes to a high canopy
density trees (LAI 9.7) with current ground materials albedo
conditions;
(D) Double the amount of trees and changes to a high canopy
density trees (LAI 9.7) with changes to ground surface materials with 0.8 albedo value (Fig. 2).
In order to predict the varying effects of vegetation and albedo
modication in different conditions, three environmental conditions e i.e. condition (B), (C) and (D) were designed and focused at
the high problematic area. Based on the eld measurement ndings, more trees were added in areas that were identied as hot
spots and high temperature areas, namely, Putra Square, P3P Road,
Rakyat Square, Perdana Boulevard, P2N Road and Tunku Abdul
Rahman Road. Tree quantities were doubled from current conditions (A) from 5100 to 10,136 additional trees. Due to time and
hardware constraints, based on the previous simulation pre-testing
that takes four to eight weeks per-simulation time, the simulation
was limited to two types of tree densities. Thus, in order to differentiate and compare the effect, the study generalized the use of
trees with LAI 0.9 as low density; LAI 2.4 as medium density (i.e.
current LAI values) and; LAI 9.7 as high density. Thus, trees studied
in this work to replace the existing situation in case study site are
Maleleuca leucadendron (ml) and Ficus benjamina (Fb) to represent
low and high tree canopy density, respectively. The lowest and
highest densities were chosen to compare a smaller to a larger
value of differences in cooling performance of trees. The proposed
trees were arranged in cluster planting to evaluate the optimum
effect of tree performance based on this arrangement. In addition,
trees are allocated 8 m distance from the tree trunk starting from
a minimum numbers of four trees in one cluster. On the other hand,
based on standard material albedo values from ENVI-met [22] and
supporting data from Perbadanan Putrajaya Annual Report [26], the
average albedo for Persiaran Perdana area ranged from 0.3 to 0.4
and was dominated by asphalt road and concrete pavement with

249

average albedos of 0.2 and 0.4 respectively. This is due to the large
open area in which asphalt materials are used for parking spaces.
However, there are also public areas, i.e. squares and open spaces
designed with higher albedo pavements such as white/grey granite
and polished white granite with albedos of 0.65 and 0.8 respectively. Furthermore, for building properties the average albedo for
walls is 0.3 and the average albedo for a roof is 0.5 [26].
3.4. HTB2 software
In further analyzing on the prediction of the indirect effect of
building energy savings based on the current, and three different
environmental scenarios modication resulting from ENVI-met,
the detailed building heat transfer simulation programme HTB2
was used. HTB2 [27] is a dynamic building energy simulation model
that can account for complex, time varying climatic and occupation
conditions in the prediction of cooling loads and indoor environmental conditions in a building [28e30]. Preferences come when
the model can predict the thermal performance of a building when
it is subject to the inuence of outdoor temperature, solar gain,
shading, ventilation and inltration. Thus, one of the strengths that
was applied for this study is the ability of the user of this model to
easily alter or replace all input components, for example meteorological conditions, ventilation, building construction and shading
properties in order to assess building energy performances. Based
on this exibility, comparison between different outdoor microclimate conditions that inuenced indoor environment of buildings
can be predicted and simulated using this model. Besides, it also
allows the user to dene complex heating and cooling schedules,
occupancy, lighting, and internal load intensity patterns, and to
vary control settings during run-time, to mimic realistic occupation
conditions [30]. HTB2 has been shown to be capable of providing
predictions that correlate with measurements in buildings [30,31].
3.4.1. Simulation development
In order to predict the indirect effect of building energy savings
based on the current, and three different environmental scenarios
modication resulting from ENVI-met, the layout of the Industrial
Design building, which was formed and selected as a basis for this
energy savings study. The building was selected due to its
simplicity and yet extreme outdoor environmental condition, with
fully hard, low albedo, pavement, that allows signicant exploration of the impact of different external environments through
simulation. This single-storey building has a simple layout with
major facades (entrance and second entrance) facing west and east,
with two other facades with windows facing north and south. The
oor comprises an open plan studio of 624 m2 sized area. Input data
for HTB2 was prepared according to the characteristics of typical
Malaysian construction, which is henceforth referred to as the
baseline model, namely: outdoor wall slabs with a painted 20 mm
thick plastered layer on the outdoors, a 110 mm brick wall layer, and
20 mm thick painted plastered layer on the indoors (Fig. 3); 12
windows with 6 mm single glazing; a solid ground oor with two
layer properties of 100 mm concrete and 1600 mm of earth and
nally a at roof composed of 100 mm of concrete, a 65 mm cavity
and 9 mm plasterboard indoors. This construction information
formed the basis for every building simulation in this study, with
the meteorological input varied for each scenario from ENVI-met
simulation output.
The additional information needed and gathered in the HTB2
input le was services data consisting of occupancy, lighting, small
power, heating and ventilation. The whole area sized at 624 m2 is
occupied by average of 28 people during ofce hours from 09:00 to
17:00 h in weekdays. These occupancy patterns were assumed to be
applicable on all days throughout the measurement period. These

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M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

Fig. 2. Three dimensional model outputs in four different conditions of environment (A) vegetation coverage and (B) mean LAI for environmental condition A to D.

details enabled the HTB2 software to calculate heat gains from the
users of the building. The light was assumed to be turned on from
09:00 to 12:30, turned off during the lunch hour and then turned
on again from 14:00 to 17:00 (Table 4). This information is used by
HTB2 to determine the internal heat gains from lighting the
building. This table also summarizes the assumed proles of energy
loads in the building caused by small computers. Thus, the information would enable the HTB2 software to calculate the internal

heat gains from these devices. The air conditioners were installed in
the building. The air conditioners in the building served the whole
areas from 08:00 to 17:00 h. Full time running of the air conditioning was chosen in order to determine those energy savings that
can be obtained from the inuence of the outdoor environment
during ofce hours and was set at 25  C. When the building was air
conditioned with windows shut, the assumed inltration rate for
this room was 0.5 ach. Additionally, the diary le was used for

Fig. 3. The basic layout of selected building (left) and the wall slabs layer properties (right).

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

Table 4
The lighting and small power data information.
Time (h)

09:00e12:30
12:30e02:00
02:00e05:00

Unit electricity load for

lighting (W/m2)

Unit energy load (W/m2)

34 nos 65 W standard
uorescent light

22 nos computers
(150 W)

2210
0
2210

3300
3300
3300

a method of scheduling events within a simulation run in HTB2. All

this information was used as a basis for information services setting
for further indirect simulation using this building. In fact, these
setting were correlated with average building service activity in
every building in Persiaran Perdana, regardless of the assumption
of the occupancy in the building.
For the prognosis simulation study of energy saving, a further
prognosis simulation was conducted in order to focus and predict
on the indirect effects of building energy savings focussing on
cooling load (Q/COP) of current conditions and three different
environment scenario modications in the Persiaran Perdana area.
Due to the objective of the study, the direct shading effect of trees
on individual building was not evaluated. The meteorological
information was obtained from ENVI-met simulation results. The
information was gathered into individual weather le and all
meteorological input becomes a variable in each le as scenarios
are inuenced by different outdoor conditions. The input data
gathered in each le was external dry bulb temperature, external
humidity, wind speed, wind direction and total horizontal solar

251

irradiation and direct normal irradiance. Thus, each weather le

represented the current and modication scenarios environmental
condition. Only six main locations that signify a divergence of
environments were chosen in order to differentiate the indirect
effect of energy savings inuenced by microclimate modication in
the Persiaran Perdana area. Finally; a comparison of building
energy savings, both current and after modication of the
conditions, was made in order to assess the energy saving to the
building.
4. Result and ndings
4.1. Comparison of current condition and three scenarios mitigation
strategies results
4.1.1. Air temperature
The comparison of the current condition with three modication scenarios is now discussed based on the resulting air
temperature variation. Four different conditions were compared for
15:00 due to peak temperature during this hour at height of 3 m in
order to understand the impact of these modications on the
maximum temperatures in this area, as presented in Fig. 4. The
image shows the gradient colour marked from blue to magenta
colour that represents lowest to highest air temperature. Based on
the current condition (A), during the daytime the spot of magenta
colour was focused at the centre point of the boulevard and clearly
represents the highest air temperature within the whole area in
Persiaran Perdana. In fact, the areas that was most affected were
P3P Road and Perdana Boulevard area. The areas with red and

Fig. 4. Air temperatures at four different conditions; current condition (A) and modied environments (B) to (D) were compared at 15:00 in 3 m height.

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M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

yellow spots such as Putra Square and Rakyat Square also had
higher temperatures. This condition is believed to be due to the lack
of greenery, lower ground albedo materials and higher building
density within that area. On the other hand, there are greenery
areas such as Wawasan Park that produced a noticeable cooling
effect and kept the area cooler during the peak hours. However, the
effect was not enough to provide the optimum cooling to the entire
area of Persiaran Perdana, especially at the focal point where most
activities occur during the daytime.
Meanwhile, after modications were made to produce condition
(B), the magenta spots reduced, turning from yellowish to greenish
in colour, indicating that the air temperature has been reduced, as
more vegetation has been added at the centre of boulevard. The
modied areas such as P3P Road, Perdana Boulevard area and along
Rakyat Square show an improvement in air temperature reduction,
where these improvements are believed to be due to the increase of
trees quantities from 60% to 100%. However, the effect of cooling is
reduced due to the use of loose canopy density trees in this
scenario. Indeed, the actual reduction achieved is believed to be
due to the increase in number of trees rather than from an increase
in tree canopy density.
In condition (C), the results are similar, where the greenish
colour spotted in condition (B) becomes more bluish with fewer
magenta spots, indicating that the areas have become cooler than
the previous scenarios (B), this time due to increased tree densities
(LAI). Thus, it is suggested that higher canopy density trees create
a remarkable modication reducing air temperature. This condition
reduced the ground surface temperature that inuenced the
evapotranspiration rate and consequently reduced the air

temperature effectively. In comparison with condition (B), the

Wawasan Park is seen to be a darkest blue colour indicating the
lowest air temperature within the whole area of Persiaran Perdana.
Ultimately, in condition (D) where both material albedo and tree
canopy density were modied, it can generally be observed that
most of the air temperatures in problematic areas are more settled
and the coolest of the scenarios tested. The centre of the boulevard
area is cooler with far fewer magenta spots due to the changes to
cool materials that have further reduced ground surface
temperature and promoted optimum evapotranspiration processes,
regardless of the shading effect and radiation ltration from high
canopy density trees. Obviously, the effect can be seen in the
middle of the boulevard and Putra Square where higher albedo
ground materials have been applied. Overall, both modications
are denitely important in reducing the air temperature in urban
area especially the critical hot spots determined in the condition
(A). Besides, during peak hours this combined modication of trees
and ground materials has created an optimum effect in air
temperature reduction. This veries the hypothesis that the urban
air temperature conditions vary as tree canopy densities and
ground surface albedo values increase.
Based on the 24 h simulated results from 12 location points from
each condition are presented in Fig. 5, where the lowest air
temperature reduction in each location point is found in condition
(D). As far as the average air temperature is concerned, the pattern
is very obvious and there is signicant difference in every condition. A comparison of each modication with the current condition,
found the variation of average temperature for most of the areas
were of differences with a magnitude of 0.9  C, 1.4  C and 1.5  C for

Fig. 5. Average (above) and maximum (below) air temperatures for 12 location points from condition A to D.

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

condition (B), (C) and (D), respectively. On one hand, the results
show that almost 60% of average temperature differences were
achieved through the increased in tree canopy densities, loose
(condition B) to high canopy density trees (condition C). While, it
also noted that the differences in changing to cool materials was
less than 10% (condition C to D). These results revealed that within
the whole 24 h periods, the highest reduction of air temperature
were originally obtained from high canopy density and large tree
quantities while, a lesser effect was found from the changes of
ground surface material properties. Thus, it sufces to say here that
modication of the trees physical aspect offers larger cooling
potential than is available through ground material modications.
It can be seen in Fig. 6 where the variation of air temperature was
inuence by the variation of tree canopy density and quantities. The
location with higher LAI values and numbers of trees offers a better
reduction. Alternatively, it can be seen in P3P Road location where
the increase of quantities of high canopy density trees (LAI 9.7),
from 0 to 124 numbers additional trees, created a remarkable
reduction of 2.5  C. However, it was found only 2  C differences
when the albedo of the ground surface was changed from 0.3 to 0.8
albedo of ground material. On the contrary, it is believed that
modication of ground materials could enhance more on the
optimum cooling effect of vegetation due to low absorption of solar
radiation and high ground surface moisture contents during the
daytime. In fact, both combinations can provide an optimum effect
in comparison to current conditions with the range of average air
temperature was found to be from 27.6  C to 30.3  C. This makes
a maximum average difference with magnitude up to 2.7  C.
As the maximum air temperature is the main concern in minimizing the effect of UHI, the pattern is very obvious and there is
signicant difference in every condition, (B), (C) and (D), from the
baseline A (Fig. 5). By having a large amount of tree quantities the
largest air temperature differences can be found in each of the test
location point, besides, after modication each critical location was
found to have improved and to compare favourably with those
locations originally dened as green spaces (i.e. Wawasan Park,
Mahkamah, Perbadanan). Condition (D) shows the lowest
maximum air temperature, where the highest maximum differences were found in Open Space, with a magnitude of 2.7  C
compared to the baseline condition (A). This is due to the effectiveness of the cooling processes of trees and ground surface during
peak hours. During these hours, it is believed that all cooling
processes were taken into consideration such as radiation ltration,

253

shading effect and evapotranspiration process [31]. By providing an

appropriate number and canopy density of trees and high albedo
materials, an optimum cooling level can be achieved offering
a signicant reduction in air temperature. On average, each location
point in each modication scenarios leads to reductions in the
region of 0.9  C, 1.2  C and 1.4  C for condition (B), (C) and (D),
respectively. These results indicate the lower differences in average
maximum from 0.3 to 0.5  C comparing to each condition. This is
believed to be due to variation in the cooling processes that take
place in different types of tree canopy densities and albedo values.
Fig. 6 shows the variation of air temperature due to changes of tree
canopy density and types of ground material. For instance, the
current condition of Wawasan Park with 90 numbers of trees, LAI of
6.1 and ground material of 0.4 albedo values was performed to
reduce the air temperature up to 1  C. However, the modication of
tree canopy density of LAI 9.7, ground material of 0.8 with the same
quantity of trees had improved the air temperature with further
reduction of 1.6  C. This condition also can be seen further in
Mahkamah and Perbadanan location points. Overall, the maximum
air temperature range was reduced from 33.6  C to 30.1  C from
condition (A) and (D), a maximum difference of up to 3.5  C.
Therefore, these large air temperature reductions may provide
a signicant method to mitigate the effect of UHI in Persiaran
Perdana. This could also inuence the indoor environment especially in building energy savings through optimum cooling effect
provided from both modications.
4.2. The indirect effect of outdoor air temperature modication
towards indoor air temperature
In order to evaluate the indirect effect of outdoor microclimate
modication, from high canopy density trees and cool materials, on
building energy savings, rstly the outdoor and indoor air
temperatures from each of the modication scenarios were evaluated. These results were used to understand the impact of
modication towards outdoor and indoor air temperature. Using
results from computer simulation using HTB2 and climate data
derived from ENVI-met of the case study building, a comparison of
average and maximum outdoor and indoor temperature in six
selected locations in Persiaran Perdana were tabulated in Fig. 7. For
the outdoor air temperature, it can be seen that the highest
reduction was found in condition (D) in the P3P Road location,
where about 124 high canopy density trees had been placed, where

Fig. 6. Air temperature reduction inuence by variation of tree canopy density, quantity and types of ground material (albedo).

254

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

Fig. 7. Summary on the comparison of outdoor and indoor air temperature modication in six selected location points in Persiaran Perdana.

average and maximum reductions of 2.0  C (7.7%) and 2.1  C (6.4%),

respectively, over the baseline condition (A). This modication of
outdoor environment inuenced further reduction in indoor air
temperature with average and maximum of 1.7  C (6%) and 1.9  C
(6%), respectively. On the other hand, location point with the lowest
tree quantity, Perdana Boulevard with four trees, shows the lowest
average and maximum reduction of 0.7  C (2.4%) and 1.2  C (3.7%),
respectively. Importantly, this result conrms the effect of outdoor
modication from trees and cool materials on indoor air
temperature reduction in Persiaran Perdana. Thus, the building
cooling load will be reduced due to the impact of these external
modications. Besides, it can be noted that the reduction of outdoor
and indoor air temperature is signicantly correlated with high
canopy density tree quantities.
Fig. 8 shows the calculated and plotted average and maximum
outdoor and indoor air temperature reduction against high canopy
density tree quantities. The tted regression lines for average
outdoor and indoor air temperature reduction for condition (D), (C)
and (B); Ta mean (out)/(in), versus high density tree quantities, Q, are as
follows:

Condition D



Ta mean out 0:0091  Q 0:8216 R2 0:96

(1)



Ta mean in 0:0077  Q 0:6217 R2 0:91

(2)

Condition C


Ta mean out 0:0091  Q 0:783 R2 0:74

(3)



Ta mean in 0:0078  Q 0:5707 R2 0:89

(4)

Condition B



Ta mean out 0:0078  Q 0:4374 R2 0:93

(5)



Ta mean in 0:0059  Q 0:318 R2 0:91

(6)

The slope of the lines indicates the average outdoor and indoor
air temperature to tree quantity increases. The slope value in
condition (D) is corresponding to a 0.01  C average outdoor air
temperature reduction per single high canopy density trees added
to the site, starting from 0.8  C reduction in 4 trees. Meanwhile,
condition (C) and (B) shows average air temperature reduction of
0.01  C, starting from 0.8 to 0.4  C in 4 trees, respectively. This
shows the condition (C) and (D) provide highest reduction in
average outdoor air temperature due to the modication. This
correlation also conrmed the effect of cooling from high canopy
density trees on outdoor air temperature modication. On the
other hand, the effect of outdoor modication provides a signicant
reduction in indoor air temperature. It can be observed that the
slope value corresponds to a 0.01  C average indoor air temperature
reduction per single trees added to the site, starting from 0.6  C

Fig. 8. Correlation between average (left) and maximum (right) outdoor and indoor air temperature and tree quantities in six selected location points.

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

reduction in 4 trees in condition (D). Meanwhile, condition (C)

shows similar reduction; however, condition (B) shows less
reduction with 0.01  C average air temperature reduction, starting
from 0.3  C reduction in 4 trees.
Similar tted regression lines were determined for maximum
outdoor and indoor air temperature reduction for condition (D), (C)
and (B); Ta max (out)/(in), versus high canopy density tree quantities,
Q, are as follows:

Condition D



Ta max out 0:006  Q 1:3659 R2 0:92

(7)



Ta max in 0:006  Q 1:092 R2 0:88

(8)

255

the highest reduction in condition (C) and (D) due to high

density trees comparing to condition (B). This effect of outdoor
modication provides a signicant reduction in indoor air
temperature during the hottest period of the day. Based on these
ndings, it can be concluded that by having high canopy density
and tree quantities, combined with cool materials, can improve
the outdoor air temperature in an urban area. This relationship
between reductions in outdoor and indoor air temperature
can results in benets to the building energy savings in a tropical climate. In fact, it can be noted that the higher quantities
of high canopy density trees planted in the building environment, the higher the outdoor and indoor air temperature
reductions.
4.3. Building energy savings

Condition C



Ta mean out 0:006  Q 0:877 R2 0:92

(9)



Ta mean in 0:007  Q 0:7022 R2 0:88

(10)

Condition B



Ta mean out 0:0084  Q 0:3738 R2 0:95

(11)



Ta mean in 0:0061  Q 0:3301 R2 0:93

(12)

The slope of the line indicates the maximum outdoor and

indoor air temperature to tree quantity increases. The slope
value is corresponding to a 0.01  C maximum outdoor and
indoor air temperature reduction per single high canopy density
trees added to the site, starting from 1.4  C to 1.1  C reduction in
4 trees in condition (D), respectively. Meanwhile, condition (C)
and (B) reduced the maximum outdoor and indoor temperature
by 0.01  C; starting from 0.9  C to 0.4  C of outdoor and 0.7 and
0.3  C of indoor Ta reduction in 4 trees, respectively. This shows

In further assessing the impact of vegetation and cool materials

modication, Fig. 9 shows the comparison of total cooling load
based on each modication in six selected location points in Persiaran Perdana. It can be observed that condition (A) shows the
highest total cooling load in all six locations between 154 and
170 kW h for one single typical day in Malaysia. At present, it can be
assumed that for most buildings in Persiaran Perdana have similar
high cooling loads due to higher outdoor temperature, as a result of
insufcient vegetation and high canopy density, low albedo
surrounding hard surfaces. This condition is believed to cause an
increase in the building cooling load and result in increased
demand for urban electricity consumption. However, between 5
and 22% of cooling load reduction can be found in condition (B)
where vegetation has been added to the site with loose canopy
density trees. In this case, by adding more trees the outdoor air
temperature becomes lower, resulting in a reduction in the building
cooling load in Persiaran Perdana. However, the impact was further
increased where high canopy density trees were introduced,
leading to a reduction in building cooling load from 126 to
148 kW h for one single day, a reduction from 8% to 29% in
comparison to condition (A). It shows that the canopy densities and
types of trees play an important role in offering indirect impact on
building energy savings in a tropical climate. Importantly, the

Fig. 9. Summary on the comparison of total cooling load based on each modication in six selected location points in Persiaran Perdana.

256

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

Fig. 10. Correlation between total cooling load percentage reduction and tree quantities in six selected location points.

optimal impact on building energy savings can be observed when

both modications of high canopy density trees and cool material
results in a further reduction in total cooling load, ranging from 120
to 140 kW h with percentage reduction from 10% to 29%. This
represents a signicant improvement in urban building energy
saving in Persiaran Perdana. These ndings conrmed that the
combined effect of both modications towards building energy
savings and this modication strategy can be of benet towards
annual energy consumption in tropical urban areas.
Additionally, the ndings from this study also found that the
reduction in total building cooling load is well correlated to high
canopy density tree quantities. Fig. 10 illustrates the calculated and
plotted total cooling load percentage reduction against high canopy
density tree quantities. The tted regression lines for total cooling
load percentage reduction, TclY, versus high canopy density tree
quantities, Q, are as follows:



Condition D TclY 0:1239  Q 10:682 R2 0:85

(13)



Condition C TclY 0:1312  Q 8:985 R2 0:90

(14)



Condition B TclY 0:1053  Q 4:3182 R2 0:68

(15)

The slope of the tted line indicates the total cooling load
percentage reduction to tree quantity increases. The slope values
within the range of 0.1 corresponding to a 0.12%, 0.13% and 0.11%
total cooling load reduction per single high canopy density trees
added to the site for condition (D), (C) and (B), starting from
a minimum reduction of 10.7%, 9.0% and 4.3% due to the planting of
4 trees, respectively. It appears that the building cooling load
reduces with the increase of tree quantities. In fact, the highest
building load reduction can be found in condition (D) where
application of high canopy density trees and cool material was
proven effective in improving building cooling load. Finally, it can
be concluded that modication of tree canopy density, quantity and
cool materials signicantly benet building energy savings in Persiaran Perdana.
5. Discussion
The ndings show that tree quantities and their canopy densities are among the paramount factors in providing signicant

temperature reduction in urban areas. The higher the number of

trees and the density of their canopies, the greater the temperature
decreases. However, combinations of both tree and ground surface
material modications are required to achieve optimal cooling
effects provided from improvements to radiation interception,
shading effect (solidness), evapotranspiration processes and
penetration of radiant heat (short and long-wave radiation)
underneath the canopy. This combined implementation was found
to lead to the largest reduction of air temperature with average and
maximum of 2.7  C and 3.5  C, respectively. On the other hand,
selection of or replacement with cool materials is recommended in
open area with no trees, in order to reduce ground surface
temperature.
Based on the above investigations, the study evaluated the
indirect effect from outdoor modication towards building environment in Persiaran Perdana. Six signicant study location points
were selected with a range of environments and modication
potentials. In the context of outdoor and indoor air temperature
modication, it can be observed that almost all were improved
within the average range from 2.7% to 7.7% outdoor and 2.4%e4.1%
indoor respectively with modication to high canopy density trees
and cool materials. In fact both outdoor and indoor air temperature
reduction was found to be correlated signicantly with tree
quantities. It can be concluded that the higher the quantity of
trees planted and density of tree canopies, together with the
installation of cool materials with high albedo, the higher the
reduction can be found in both outdoor and indoor air
temperature. Further, this correlation was also found to
signicantly affect the building energy savings. Indeed, the effect
of optimum outdoor microclimate modication from planting of
trees and use of cool materials produced a maximum reduction of
29%, where 124 numbers of trees and 0.8 albedo of ground
materials were replaced around building area at P3P Road. The
optimum indirect effect of trees on building energy savings can
also be evaluated from correlation, where the effect of higher tree
quantity and canopy density in combination with cool materials
was found to offer optimal building energy savings.
6. Summary
Practically, the study has predicted a signicant potential in
offering an optimum cooling effect to urban spaces through the
modication of both tree and ground surface material physical
properties. In further prediction of the optimum cooling potential

M.F. Shahidan et al. / Building and Environment 58 (2012) 245e257

from these combined modications, the current environment of

Persiaran Perdana has been compared with three different
scenarios consisting of different tree LAI values and ground material albedo values. Through computer simulation using ENVI-met,
average temperatures were found to have been reduced by up to
2.7  C in Persiaran Perdana, when the majority of trees have a mean
LAI 9.7 (for example: F. benjamina species), the existing tree
quantities are increased by 50% and the ground surfaces are
replaced with cool materials (polished white granite). It should
be noted that this improvement is equal to the UHI intensity
measured in the current condition of Persiaran Perdana. This
mitigation is found to rely heavily on both LAI values and quantity
of trees, as modication due to increase in ground material albedo
values (0.8) contribute only a small proportion of the maximum
reduction in air temperature of 0.2  C. Further, modication of high
canopy density trees together with installation of cool materials
offers optimum building energy savings in comparison to tree-only
based scenarios. The higher the quantity and canopy density of
trees planted in combination with installation of cool materials, the
higher the reduction of building energy savings. Essentially, it is
recommended that these three major factors need to be considered
in combination in order to optimize the cooling effect in urban
environment at street level, high tree canopy density (LAI 9.7),
larger tree quantity (90% increased) and cool materials (a; 0.8).
Thus, these three factors should be considered in combination
when designing the urban outdoor landscape, as these modications optimally modify outdoor and indoor air temperature and
ultimately offer better improvement towards building energy
performance especially in hot urban tropical climate condition.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to Ministry
of Higher Education and Universiti Putra Malaysia for providing
nancial support and scholarship for this study. The authors also
wish to express sincere thanks to Perbadanan Putrajaya, Malaysian
Centre for Remote Sensing (MACRES) and Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) and for their assistance and data sharing in
the experimental work. Great appreciation also goes to Mr. Dylan
Dixon and Mrs. Asa Naim Rusli for their helping during the eld
measurement process.
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