Evaluation of summer mean radiant temperature simulation in ENVI-met in a hot Mediterranean climate

ENVI-met is currently one of the most popular simulation tools of urban microclimates, used by researchers and designers alike. Yet, in recent years some concerns have been raised regarding the software's capability to accurately simulate the effects of solar irradiance on increased heat stress, especially in hot weather conditions. These concerns have eventually led to the implementation of a new radiation scheme in version 5 of the software. This study set out to evaluate whether this new scheme increased the software's accuracy in evaluating incoming shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes, expressed as Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), by comparing monitored and simulated summertime values at 60 locations.