Journal of Ergonomics
Open Access

Abstract

Human Outdoor Thermal Comfort Analysis for the 2 Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women's FIFA World cup

Paulo S. Lucio*, Ana Carla Gomes

Over the last century many indices have been developed and used to assess thermal comfort conditions for humans. Such indices are used sporadically for specific purposes; some are based on generalized results of measurements some on the empirically observed reactions of the human body to heat stress. Indices that are based on considerations of human heat balance are referred to as "rational indices". This paper presents a comparative analysis of the Thermal Comfort Index via Principal Components (PCTCI) and some of the most prevalent thermal comfort indices. So it is explored, in this work; some well-known classic methods to calculate thermal comfort, contrasting them with a method proposed here that is based on the Principal Components Analysis for some of the host cities of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup’s in Australia (Asian Confederation) and in New Zealand (Oceania Confederation). The principal components analysis takes into account the natural outdoor urban space, which is influenced by the external atmosphere variables. The purpose of the comfort index is to measure the atmospheric variability and the result shows whether thermal comfort increases or decreases from one month to another or seasonally. Considering the predominant climate characteristics of Australia and New Zealand, it is possible to identify that among classical and canonical urban thermal comfort indices investigated. The Principal Component Thermal Comfort Index (PCTCI) provides convenient evidence to be also appropriate. The overall vision of the final results of the study is related to the equivalence between the classical climate-dependent thermal comfort indices and the proposal of a selfexplanatory index by the linear combination of the atmospheric variables, which captures the greatest joint variability, without a pre-efined equation, but rather by the construction of an empirical equation, with regional coefficients. The observed climate variables determine, locally, the thermal comfort experienced by humans. Furthermore, similar to the human body, the PCTCI is very sensitive to changes in climate variables: temperature, solar radiation, wind, andhumidity. The PCTCI depicts the temporal variability of thermal conditions like the other indices, but in a more user-friendly way.

Published Date: 2025-06-24; Received Date: 2023-08-30