Integrating wearable and traditional sensors for the experimental calibration and validation of a historical urban model in ENVI-met

The Urban Heat Island phenomenon significantly affects thermal comfort and air quality in densely built Mediterranean cities. Accurately modelling urban microclimates is essential for evaluating and predicting the thermal performance of historical built environments. This study focuses on calibrating and assessing the reliability of the ENVI-met simulation software by means of empirical field measurements from the surrounding areas of a historical building in Aversa, southern Italy. The research employs a wearable sensor system and traditional meteorological instruments to collect real-world data across distinct zones of the area representing different microclimatic conditions. While previous research has primarily focused on comparing air temperature between ENVI-met simulations and real-world conditions, limited studies have addressed the model’s accuracy in a shorter time span, predicting air temperature, mean radiant temperature, and relative humidity. This study aims to bridge this gap by integrating these additional parameters into the validation process. A two-step methodology is adopted: (i) conducting field measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, and Mean Radiant Temperature, at different zones of the building, and (ii) using this empirical data to calibrate and validate the ENVI-met model. The simulation is limited to a 30-minute duration, which constrains the analysis of long-term microclimatic variations. Preliminary results indicate that ENVI-met model returns a good reliability for air temperature (RMSE: 1.43–1.49 °C; r: 0.70–0.74) and relative humidity (RMSE: 4.97–5.40%; r: 0.54–0.76) for a shorter simulation time, while showing less accuracy for mean radiant temperature (RMSE: ∼7.97 °C; r: -0.35 to -0.46) for the same time period. The study underscores the limitations of ENVI-met in simulating complex microclimates within historical buildings and suggests the importance of further material refinements and calibration for its use in climate adaptation strategies.