Study on Outdoor Thermal Environment Evaluation and Optimization Design Strategy of Nursing Homes in Hot and Humid Areas

In the context of global aging, frailty has become a major threat to the health of the elderly. Appropriate outdoor activities can delay the frailty process of the elderly. However, in hot and humid areas, the harsh outdoor thermal environment often causes heat stroke, which seriously hinders the outdoor activities of the elderly. Therefore, exploring the outdoor thermal comfort of the elderly in hot and humid areas and creating an outdoor environment suitable for the activities of the elderly are of great significance to enhancing the health and vitality of the elderly and delaying the aging process. This study focuses on elderly care homes in Guangzhou, classifying residents into healthy, pre-frailty, and frail groups based on their health status. Through field surveys, questionnaires, thermal environment measurements, and infrared image collection, the study identifies the most suitable thermal comfort indicators for each group of elderly individuals. The research shows that compared with PET, mPET, and UTCI, SET* is more suitable for evaluating the summer outdoor thermal sensation of the elderly with different levels of frailty in humid and hot regions, and its predictive rate and expressiveness are the best. Furthermore, the study constructs a thermal comfort prediction model based on facial skin temperature, and proposes optimization strategies for outdoor thermal environments. These strategies focus on both active and passive measures aimed at enhancing the main activity spaces of elderly individuals. By adopting these strategies, the study aims to provide theoretical guidance for constructing a healthy, comfortable, and suitable outdoor thermal environment that supports various elderly activities in hot and humid regions.