Faced with a drought, it’s tempting for cities to reduce the amount of space that needs water. But this is not a good idea.
Articles on Urban heat
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How to move beyond the warm words about tackling urban heat islands to doing something about them.
Behind the built-up glitz of Surfers Paradise lies a deep history that has been written and overwritten in successive layers that have become thinner and thinner as time goes on.
Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as “soft fall” materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
Australians are losing the backyards that once served as retreats from the stresses of city living. Our health is likely to suffer as cities become less green and much hotter.
Extreme heat divides people from the environment and from each other. So with the rapid densification of our cities, what kind of legacies are we building for future generations?
Greening cities that are becoming denser is a major challenge. City-dwellers’ health benefits from both well-designed green spaces and urban density, so we must manage the tensions between them.
Do you ever feel that the weather is worse on the weekend? Well you might be right!
Recently published research has found that the concentration of poorer people in hotter places is a real problem for cities’ capacity to cope with climate change.
The rhetoric of ‘smart cities’ is dominated by the economic, with little reference to the natural world and its plight. Truly smart and resilient cities need to be more in tune with the planet.
Hot spots occur at the scale of where people live – the building, the street, the block – which means urban design and building materials have profound implications for our health and well-being.
Achieving green cities will require more than just canopy cover targets and central city strategies. It will need new approaches to urban planning and development.
If planning decisions properly considered the value of trees in a city, we could have a modern transport system and tree-lined views to enhance the journey.
It seems like a ‘no brainer’ to use urban greening to help cities adapt to increasing heat, but the uptake of green infrastructure, such as trees and vegetated roofs, surfaces and walls, is slow. Why?
Heatwaves — Australia’s biggest natural killers — are getting more frequent and hotter thanks to climate change. One day cities such as Melbourne may see unprecedented heat, perhaps 48C or higher. But…
Top contributors
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Professor, Social Design, Faculty of Design and Society, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor, Human Geography and Urban Studies School of Social Sciences/ Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
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Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith University
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Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of Tasmania
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Professor, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney
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Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor in Urban Science, University of California, Davis
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Lecturer and Researcher, Urban Design and Town Planning, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Associate Director Smart Green Cities, Macquarie University
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Distinguished Professor, Director of Smart Green Cities, Macquarie University
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Professor and ARC Future Fellow, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
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Associate Professor of Economics, Australia Director - Centre for International Trade and Business in Asia (CITBA), James Cook University
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Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
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Professor in Urban Horticulture, The University of Melbourne
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Spatial analyst, Macquarie University