Thermal comfort implications of urbanization in a warm-humid city: the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR), Sri Lanka

An increasing trend in thermal discomfort-particularly at night-is seen especially at the suburban station and it correlates well with hard land cover changes. The study also brings out the relative importance of land cover in city center vs. rural areas (e.g. hard cover has more effect on thermal discomfort in city center than in rural areas). Based on these findings, we postulate an outline for a climate-sensitive urban design policy for tropical cities.