Design for wind comfort in The Netherlands: Procedures, criteria and open research issues

A code for the assessment of wind comfort and wind danger in the built environment in the Netherlands is presented. The code is not another legal building requirement, but a helping hand to include wind comfort in a building programme. It regulates technical procedures and some quality control. A decision scheme indicates which building plans need professional assessment by wind engineers.Local wind speed data are predicted from wind tunnel or CFD simulations. Statistics of a reference wind speed at the building location is needed to calculate the probability that a threshold wind speed is exceeded. The code prescribes a method which is offered as a software package to calculate the statistics of the reference wind speed at a height of 60 m. It includes the most up-to-date data from meteorological stations in the Netherlands.The probability that the pedestrian wind speed exceeds a threshold value of 5 m/s is a measure for wind comfort. Larger probability means less comfort. Therefore, five grades of wind comfort A–E are defined as function of this probability. In addition, for three different activities of the public (traversing, strolling and sitting) these grades of wind comfort are assessed in terms of a poor, moderate or good local wind climate.