This paper is a part of study about the impact of the microclimate on the space use and the user’s behavior’s. The purpose of our study is to get an in-depth understanding of how people use out door public spaces in different climatic conditions, how their behavior and perception of the space change with the climatic variations. We have employed a multi-method approach which combines a “qualitative” and “quantitative” analysis. Three squares were chosen as a setting for either a video observations, climatic measurement and interviews with the users. The whole investigations were conducted one day in winter 2009 and one day in summer 2010. The result of the qualitative and the quantitative analysis revealed that the climate variables played very different roles in predicting the use mode and density of the three squares in the two seasonal periods.

Because of the differences between indoor and outdoor thermal condition, preparing some outdoor thermal indices is a way to understand and categorize the outdoor thermal sensation. The aim of these indices is not to provide thermal comfort-as it is the aim of indoor indices. Instead, they are provided to analyze outdoor thermal sensation to help architects, landscape architects and urban designers in design procedure to provide the most possible tolerable thermal condition in outdoor places such as urban public spaces. This article is the result of some field studies have been done in 2010-2012 in five different climates: hot semi humid (Ahvaz, Iran), tropical (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), hot-arid (Kashan, Iran), moderate-arid (Tehran, Iran) and cold (Sheffield, UK) in their worst thermal period. The main question in this research is: which outdoor thermal index is appropriate for a specific climate? And how much it is accurate to evaluate outdoor thermal sensation especially in different levels of cold stress and heat stress condition? In each field study the weather data including temperature, humidity and wind speed, are collected by two portable Kestrel weather stations to show weather condition in local and microclimate levels. People's behavior in outdoor spaces is observed to understand their reaction to the different thermal conditions. A nominal observation scale is used for people’ s age, health, clothes, activity and exposure time. Outdoor thermal indices that are used in this research are: Humidex, WBGT (wet bulb globe temperature), TSI (tropical summer index), Summer Outdoor Comfort Zone, WCET (wind chill equivalent temperature), THI (temperature humidity index) and UTCI (universal thermal climate index). The results show that outdoor thermal indices may have not the same explanation for the same thermal condition. Some of them are more appropriate for some specific condition while others are not. At last it would be summarized that they have acceptable sensitivity to temperature but most of them need to become more sensitive to humidity and air velocity.

Urbanization brings biophysical changes in the composition of the landscape. Such change has an impact on the thermal environment locally. The urban mosaic of land use and land cover is thus characteristically composed of local climate zones. The spatial variation in the land surface temperature across specific zone is studied for Bhopal city. The objective of the study was to understand how the surface temperature varies with the spatial characteristics of the landscape. The green spaces had the lowest surface temperature that reaches to about 30.5 oC in parks with dense tree cover and highest mean normalized difference vegetation index value of about 0.5. The surface temperature was 36.1 oC for built up/barren areas. The study documents the correlation that exists between surface vegetation and surface temperature across the landscape of Bhopal city. The extent of tree cover and land surface temperature exhibited a strong negative correlation. A decrease in vegetation cover and successive increase in urban built up area were found to be related with high surface temperature. This implies that land surface temperature is an effective tool and may help city planners to make appropriate strategies for improving the tree resources of the urban landscape.

Understanding the environmental conditions in vessels of tissue cultured plantlets could help us to prepare optimum conditions, and hence improve the production efficiency in micropropagation. Plantlets of wild cherry were studied in culture vessels, using two different types of caps, conventional non-vented cap (NYC) and filtered vented cap (YC). CO2 concentrations in vessels, in general, were lower, compared with atmospheric CO2, but more reduction in concentration was observed in NYC. When the light intensity was increased, more depletion of CO2 in the vessels was measured. However, no significant differences in photosynthetic performance (Pm) were observed in plantlets under two treatments. Transpiration rate and stomatal conductance of plantlets in VC were lower and this could be due to improvement in stomatal functioning. This improvement, in turn, has been attributed to lower relative humidity (RH). In this experiment RH in YC vessels was 17% lower than NYC.

Using outdoor public spaces as a place of social interaction is in a great consideration these days. Providing tolerable thermal condition as long as possible is one of the primary stages for people’ s presence in these places. Outdoor thermal indices are introduced to help architects making appropriate decisions in climate responsive design procedure. By doing some field study research in extreme climatic condition of tropical city of Kuala Lumpur, this article will introduce a research method of data collecting and data analyzing using outdoor thermal indices. How to do an effective and helpful research for design requirements is the aim of this method. Field data are collected by a mobile Kestrel weather station in different outdoor spaces of the city centre. Weather data are analyzed in three levels of meso, local and microclimate. Architectural properties of the place are explained according to their response to the climatic condition. Software named SIKRON is designed by the author to speed up the analyzing process.

In arid and semi-arid ecosystems, shrubs may act as fertility islands but their effect may vary depending on their morphology and ecological impacts. This research was aimed to study effect of three shrubsScariola orientalis, Astragalus heratensis, and Rosa persicaon soil properties and on the microclimate conditions (temperature, luminance, and soil moisture) of their understory in the steppe rangelands of Kakhek Gonabad, Iran. Along 50-m transects, flexible plot sizes were selected to measure the microclimate factors of understory species and the open spaces next to the shrubs based on the canopy diameters of each intercepted shrubs. Soil samples were taken from understory of shrubs. The microclimatic factors of understory and open spaces were compared using paired-t test.The soil properties were analyzed under 3 shrubs and open spaces and then comparison were made usingDuncan‟s test. The results showed that temperature and luminance intensity were significantly lower in understory than the open spaces (p<0.05). Soil depth moistures (15-55 cm) were higher in understory than the open space while soil surface moistures (0-10 cm) did not vary. Among the investigated shrubs, Astragalus heratensis had the greatest facilitation effect on microclimatic factors. The soil criteria of EC (0.32 mS/cm), organic matter (1.6%), and nitrogen (0.08%) were significantly higher in understory ofAstragalus heratensis than in the open space (0.15 mS/cm, 0.39%, and 0.028%), respectively. These effects can be related to the wider canopy cover, greater stature, and possibly nitrogen fixation for Astragalus heratensis.