The NSW Department of Planning and Environment and the University of New South Wales’s High Performance Architecture team have partnered together to create a new national body to monitor urban heat in Australia’s towns and cities.
The National Heat Vulnerability Observatory will measure and report on heat vulnerability and cooling potential of Australian’s urban centres.
Cities are particularly vulnerable to extreme temperatures due to the urban heat island effect. In January 2020, Western Sydney reached 48.9 degrees, and Melbourne and Sydney are projected to face summer days of more than 50 degrees in the near future.
“This causes increased deaths and emergency admissions from heat waves, increased energy and water consumption, and equity issues for vulnerable populations,” said associate professor Lan Ding. “We need evidence-driven strategies to support smarter cities that improve the quality of life for communities across regional and metropolitan Australia.”
The National Heat Vulnerability Observatory will develop national datasets by using digital twins and collecting data specific to cities and town to enable monitoring of health vulnerability.
“By developing rigorous national datasets, we can better understand performance measures and, in turn, develop a sophisticated methodology and benchmarks for heat vulnerability,” Ding said. “It’s important to plan for resilient and smart places and communities to combat climate change and its serious impacts.”
A pilot program will be established in Maitland and Dubbo and regional NSW.
The National Heat Vulnerability Observatory builds on previously developed Microclimate and Urban Heat Island Decision-support Tool which models various heat mitigation techniques.
The tool has been used in a number of case studies in Australian and internationally, including in South Melbourne, where the university worked with City of Port Phillip to help inform recommendations for built environment in the South Melbourne Structure Plan.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
