Percepção climática e conforto térmico: contribuição ao estudo interdisciplinar dos aspectos objetivos e subjetivos do clima em Palmas, TO

Abstract

The research has as its aim to investigate the climate perception, introduced the concept of climate characterized as the rhythm of the performance of the types of weather and thermal comfort. The better known studies on thermal comfort quantify the physical and physiological effects of the atmospheric ambience on people, based on indices, leaving gaps on the knowledge both in the climate dynamics, in which the environmental variables are inserted and in the phenomenon subjectivity for the understanding of this reality. Considering that issue, the present research enquires the insufficiency of the referred indices via an exclusively positivist bias for the comprehension of the climate perception and the thermal comfort, especially in warm climates like the one of Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil. With the purpose of learning about the essences of the climate and thermal comfort as lived phenomena, the thesis aims to contribute with the mastery of those themes in an interdisciplinary way, focusing their objective and subjective aspects in a complementary manner. To accomplish that, the method used complied four phases: (1) the annual rhythmic analysis in two selected standard-years, one of comfortable standard and one of uncomfortable standard, 1997 and 2013, respectively, in conjunction with the Discomfort Index (DIT), proposed by Thom (1959); (2) the episodic rhythmic analysis, involving three episodes within the years 2015 and 2016, in conjunction with the PET and UTCI comfort indices, applied in outer area of the city; (3) the quali-quantitative evaluation of personal data of the residents about their thermal perception, collected through questionnaires during those same episodes; (4) and the analysis of the subjective data utilizing empiric application of the phenomenological method, with the operational orientations of Giorgi (2012a). The thesis sought to provide some main methodological contributions: an interdisciplinary approach of the climate rhythmic analysis (and the microclimate measured in loco) with the thermal comfort indices; a inter-relational approach between the climate analyses and the people’s perception on the climate and thermal comfort, comprising their objective and subjective aspects; and the unprecedented use of a phenomenological focus on the climatology and thermal comfort. The climate dynamics in Palmas demonstrated that the city renders high temperatures throughout the year, with two distinct periods, rainy and dry, presenting greater thermal discomfort in the transition from the dry season to the rainy one. Furthermore, it was verified that the city has been presenting an expansion of the thermal comfort along the analyzed period (1995–2014). The quali-quantitative assessment pointed out that the variables linked to the thermal experience, to the physical-physiological aspects and to the affective experience most of the time influenced partially on the people’s thermal comfort perception. The essential structure unveiled in the phenomenological analysis showed that the climate is only one more element in a vast assembly of natural, social, economic and cultural aspects, which interfere on the well-being and the quality of life of the subjects and on their thermal comfort, what enhances the need of a less partial approach of the complex reality of the climate perception.