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Articles on Urban heat

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Artist’s impression of the new city. NSW Government/AAP

Bold and innovative planning is delivering Australia’s newest city. But it will be hot – and can we ditch the colonial name?

The new city bears a colonial name and there are questions about locating it in the hottest part of Sydney, but we are also seeing all 3 tiers of government work together in an innovative way.
Dean Lewins/AAP

Why Western Sydney is feeling the heat from climate change more than the rest of the city

Very hot days in Western Sydney are typically 5 degrees hotter than parts of the city close to the coast and are becoming more common, but only in the west. Four climate drivers explain the difference.
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Planting trees in urban areas can reduce the impacts of urban heat islands. Dutch_Photos/Shutterstock

Planting more trees could reduce premature heat-related deaths in European cities by a third – new research

In 2015, 6,700 premature deaths were caused by urban heat – this can be reduced by a third by planting more trees.
Photo: Jaana Dielenberg

Climate change threatens up to 100% of trees in Australian cities, and most urban species worldwide

Urban plantings are part of the solution to living in warmer cities, but most tree and shrub species in the world’s cities will struggle too. The impacts on liveability could be huge.
Rising global temperatures are increasing heat risks for outdoor workers and the urban poor. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

Dangerous urban heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s, with the poor most at risk

Hot, humid population centers are becoming epicenters of heat risk as climate changes worsens. It’s calling into question the conventional wisdom that urbanization uniformly reduces poverty.
Even without air conditioning, there are still many things you can do to prepare for extreme heat and stay comfortable on hot days. fizkes/Shutterstock

How to cope with extreme heat days without racking up the aircon bills

Air conditioning isn’t the answer for everyone, especially for residents of the less affluent – and often hotter – suburbs of our big cities. But there are other ways to make hot days more bearable.
Where’s the shade? Trees are not an immediate or whole answer to keeping cool. Cameron Tonkinwise

Keeping the city cool isn’t just about tree cover – it calls for a commons-based climate response

Trees and the shade they provide are one of the best ways of cooling cities. But they also present challenges that are best resolved by managing this shared resource as part of an urban commons.
During a heatwave in late 2018, Cairns temperatures topped 35°C nine days in a row and sensors at some points in the CBD recorded 45°C.

Urban growth, heat islands, humidity, climate change: the costs multiply in tropical cities

The world’s fastest-growing cities are in the tropics. They are highly exposed to climate change, especially as urban heat island effects and humidity magnify the impacts of increasing heatwaves.
Increasing heat in Sydney and other Australian cities highlights the urgent need to apply our knowledge of how to create liveable low-carbon cities. Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock

We have the blueprint for liveable, low-carbon cities. We just need to use it

The research has been done. The evidence is in. We know how to create cities that are sustainable, liveable and affordable. But we have yet to apply that knowledge widely across Australian cities.
Australian cities could lose some of their most common trees to climate change. Jamen Percy/Shutterstock

Our cities need more trees, but some commonly planted ones won’t survive climate change

Thirty tree species make up more than half of Australia’s urban forests. Some won’t survive climate change, so cities must plant a more diverse mix of the right species to preserve their tree cover.

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