Daylight Quantitative Assessment of the Urban Districts in a Hot Arid Region

Marouane Samir Guedouh, Kamal Youcef, Hocine Sami Belmahdi, Noureddine Zemmouri

Abstract


Daylight plays a crucial role in defining the overall urban experience, influencing thermal comfort, energy consumption, and visual appeal. This research aims to study the light environment in arid urban settings. The study focuses on a quantitative analysis of the light environment based on the morphological characteristics of significant city districts. We examine how urban morphology impacts illumination levels, considering factors such as street orientation, Sky View Factor (SVF), Height-to-Width (H/W) report, surface textures and coatings, and the presence of vegetation, among others. Using a C.A 813 lux-meter, our research involves an on-site measurement campaign across various quarters in Biskra to assess the effectiveness of different lighting control and adjustment strategies. The study reveals that natural illuminance in urban streets is influenced not just by SVF, but by a combination of morphological factors including H/W report, street orientation, and surface reflectance. Contemporary districts with higher H/W report and well-organized layouts achieved the best daylight performance, while traditional areas, despite high SVF, showed the lowest illumination due to dense and irregular forms.

Keywords: daylight environment, urban morphology, illumination level, onsite measurement, arid region

© 2025 Serbian Geographical Society, Belgrade, Serbia.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia.


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