Abstract

In the wake of climate change cities need to adapt to global warming In this context the use of afforestation to improve the microclimate may assist in raising the quality of life for population This objective requires research that analyzes how the variations in parameters related to canopy dynamics such as the leaf area index LAI and photosynthetically active radiation PAR can influence thermal comfort indices To contribute to this research this study measured the air temperature relative air humidity PAR and LAI on a monthly basis from July 2017 to June 2018 in an urban park in a tropical region of Brazil Kriging maps were created for the heat index HI and multiple polynomial regression models were adjusted to estimate the HI using PAR and LAI data After defining the models positive and negative variations of LAI were tested to observe if any changes in HI occurred The simulated results showed greater sensitivity to negative variations in LAI in which a 50 reduction in LAI decreased the HI by 28 particularly during the dry period