التقييم الجغرافي لقرائن الراحة الفسيولوجية لتطبيقها على رؤى التنمية السياحية في المملكة العربية السعودية

Abstract EN

With the increasing interest in the tourism sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to diversify the non-oil revenues of the state within the 2030 vision.

In this vision seeks to get rid of dependence on oil as the only source of revenue, applied climate research plays an important role in contributing to the definition of tourist attractions.

One of the most important applied climatic researchs that can play an important role in defining tourist attractions in the Kingdom is the applications of the physiologic comfort index.

In this context, this research deals with the study of the impact of climate elements affecting directly the tourism movement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

These climate elements are the relative humidity, temperature, and wind speed.

This study uses three physiological comfort indexes widely applied in the applied climatic studies.

These comfort indexes are Thom's Discomfort Index (DI) (Thom, 1959), the Gaffney Effective Temperature Index (Gaffney, 1973) and Oliver Temperature Humidity Index Temperature Humidity Index (THI) (Oliver,1981).

The climatic data used to determine the studied comfort indexes are the daily data of temperature, relative humidity and wind speed in a total of 26 stations located in the various regions of the Saudi Arabia.

The results have shown the integration and the diversity in the spatial distribution of relative comfort periods and periods of full rest between the different regions.

The results of Gaffney's index indicated that the period from May to September and October and April in Abha and Khamis Mushait are the period of complete rest.

The results of the Thom’s index also showed that the Northern region, Dammam, Medina, Wadi Al Dawasir, Taif, Al Baha, Khamis Mushayt and Abha are areas of relative comfort from late Autumn to the beginning of Spring.

These regions are also the areas of complete rest during the Winter with the extended rest period from the end of Spring to the beginning of Autumn in Khamis Mushayt and Abha.

In addition, the results of Oliver's index showed that the two best seasons for complete rest are the Spring and Autumn in Tabouk, Al-Jouf, Hail, Khamis Mushayt, Abha and the Winter in Al-Baha, Wadi Al-Dawasir, Najran and Bisha.