Many children growing up in cities are spending less time outdoors to escape the heat. This is contributing to childhood obesity and the prospect of a range of diseases in adulthood. When landscape architects and urban designers use a human thermal comfort model to test their designs for children’s comfort, they would have to use a model essentially designed to simulate healthy adults. Yet there are many differences between the body of a child and an adult. The aim of this paper was to modify the thermal comfort model COMFA into a children’s energy budget model through the consideration of the heat exchange of a child. The energy budget of a child can be up to 21 W/m 2 higher than adults in hot summertime conditions, and 26 W/m 2 lower in cold conditions. The model was validated through field studies of 65 children (32 boys and 33 girls) aged from 7-12 years old in 9 days from March to June in 2019, in 68 different microclimates ranging from cool to hot. A 5-point thermal comfort scale of energy budget for children was created using multinomial logistic regression, which revealed that children have a different range of thermal acceptability than adults. The frequency distribution of the actual thermal sensation and the predicted thermal comfort was improved using the new scale. The actual thermal sensation responses from children and the predicted thermal sensation using the model was determined to be positively significantly related. The accuracy of the model was 93.26%. This study has provided an effective children’s energy budget model to predict children’s thermal comfort. Its application can contribute to the design of thermally comfortable children’s outdoor play areas by landscape architects and urban designers.

中文翻译：

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用于估计儿童热舒适度的能量预算模型

许多在城市长大的孩子在户外避暑的时间越来越少。这会导致儿童肥胖和成年后出现一系列疾病的可能性。当景观设计师和城市设计师使用人体热舒适模型来测试他们的儿童舒适度设计时，他们将不得不使用一个主要用于模拟健康成人的模型。然而，儿童和成人的身体之间存在许多差异。本文的目的是通过考虑儿童的热交换，将热舒适模型COMFA修改为儿童能量收支模型。在炎热的夏季条件下，儿童的能量预算可比成人高 21 W/m 2 ，在寒冷条件下可低 26 W/m 2 。该模型通过在 2019 年 3 月至 6 月的 9 天内，在从凉爽到炎热的 68 个不同小气候中对 7-12 岁的 65 名儿童（32 名男孩和 33 名女孩）进行的实地研究得到验证。使用多项逻辑回归创建了儿童能量预算的 5 点热舒适量表，该量表显示儿童的热可接受范围与成人不同。使用新量表改进了实际热感觉和预测热舒适度的频率分布。来自儿童的实际热感觉反应和使用该模型预测的热感觉被确定为显着正相关。该模型的准确率为 93.26%。本研究提供了一个有效的儿童能量预算模型来预测儿童的热舒适度。