Developing climate-led landscapes and greenery in urban design: a case study at Ipoh, Malaysia

Designing urban landscapes for climate change adaptation and mitigation has been highly promoted in contemporary urban development. However, the lack of climate-based design knowledge and techniques in existing urban landscape practice has challenged the implementation. This paper, therefore, introduced a climate-led urban landscape design method to overcome such a dilemma. This approach was results-oriented, and it adopted an integrated use of microclimate, thermal comfort, and GIS modelling and simulation tools. Through the scenarios comparison, this paper has assessed and figured out efficient landscape designs for microclimate and thermal comfort improvement in Ipoh, Malaysia. It showed that shading most determined outdoor thermal comfort, making effective street tree planting an essential measure in the tropical climate-led plan. Besides, this study found that wind did not positively influence thermal comfort due to site characteristic at a particular time, in contrast with other hot regions. In conclusion, developing climate-led landscape and greenery in urban design is a functional initiative for urban cooling and sustainable urban development. Furthermore, the application of modelling and simulation methods in urban landscape design can reduce the possibility of failure in practice, thereby promising urban efficiency in response to climate change.