Physiological Comfort in Iraq: A Comparative Study of Erbil, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra Stations (1985-2018)

Abstract

Human comfort is of international interest as it has a direct impact on the productivity and mental efficiency. Climate is one of the vital factors of the physiological and psychological comfort as well as activity and health. It is an essential indicator of human interaction with the environment. In spite of the technological advance that humanity witnessed to control environment, climate is still affecting human comfort and health. Comfort differs from one person to another depending on several factors. Some of them are related to human and some related to climate. Many criteria depend on one climatic factor and two or more factors. In the present study, the focus was on two main climatic factors, i.e., temperature and relative humidity as they directly affect the levels of physiological comfort in Iraq. Four climatic stations: Erbil, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. It was found that there is a variation in comfort among the months of the year in all the stations in the study area.