644 The thermal perceptions of people in relation to meteorological observations. Case study for the urban agglomeration in Suceava - NE Romania

Abstract

d: This study by design, approach, duration and number of respondents is the
first of its kind for Suceava and Romania. The first objective of the study was to assess the average
level of thermal perceptions of the population in the researched area. Methods: The respondents
appreciated and wrote the level of comfort/discomfort felt daily, the interdiurnal, interlunar and
intertemporal regime of thermal perceptions by reference to the meteorological elements and biometeorological indices was also assessed. The biometeorological survey test was conducted from
January 1, 2019 to February 28, 2021, and 9321 valid responses were received (on average 11.8 answers/day-1). Results: The overall average of the answers (of -0.55) shows that the respondents perceived the atmosphere of the urban agglomeration as cool, the winters were cold and moderately
cold (the answers average = -1.43), whereas the summers were more thermally comfortable than
warm (the average of the answers = 0.73). The Pearson correlation coefficients between the averages
of the daily answers and the average or extreme values of temperature, respectively of the biometeorological indices, ranged between 0.65 and 0.88. Conclusions: The PCA analysis reconfirmed high
degrees of correlation between the average responses, the examined meteorological and biometeorological factors.
Keywords: thermal perception; thermal comfort; gradual thermal discomfort