The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has introduced a new national urban heat observatory to make Australian cities more liveable, sustainable and climate resilient.
The National Heat Vulnerability Observatory (NaHVO) at UNSW will report and measure the heat vulnerability and cooling potential of Australia’s urban centres.
UNSW’s School of Built Environment associate professor, Lan Ding, said the climate crisis is changing Australian cities and steps must be taken to adapt.
“Urban heat is a major challenge for the future of Australian cities. Understanding its impact and developing appropriate intervention strategies is a critical and urgent task,” Ding said.
The decade from 2010 to 2019 was the warmest on record. In January 2020, Western Sydney reached 48.9°C (half-way to boiling point) with Sydney and Melbourne set to face 50°C+ summer days in the very near future.
Rising temperatures particularly affect cities due to the urban heat island effect – the increased temperature of high-density urban areas compared with surrounding suburban or rural areas.
Urban heat causes increased deaths and emergency admissions from heat waves as well as increased energy and water consumption.
“We need evidence-driven strategies to support smarter cities that improve the quality of life for communities across regional and metropolitan Australia,” Ding said.
The National Heat Vulnerability Observatory (NaHVO) is a partnership between the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and UNSW's High Performance Architecture team.
The project’s advisory committee includes representatives from government, industry and academia.
The NaHVO will develop rigorous national datasets and an innovative, robust and consistent methodology to help cool Australian cities. It uses analytical modelling to allow cities and precincts to explore what-if scenarios for different mitigation and adaptation interventions.
Two pilot projects in the regional cities of Maitland and Dubbo, funded by the Smart Places Acceleration Program, are expected to be followed by a national expansion integrated with developing its digital capability for it to be scaled nationally.
The NaHVO will integrate with the NSW Spatial Digital Twin and other urban networks and government data platforms for cumulative impact.
The observatory will build city- and town-specific datasets for heat vulnerability to allow local government to tailor their heat mitigation programs for their specific local contexts.
Ding said at a state and national level, this will enable the monitoring of heat vulnerability and cooling trends across Australia.
This will help prioritise effective heat vulnerability investments and measure the impact of policies and investments over time. It will assist urban planners, developers and architects in designing local urban and building mitigation interventions.
The project builds on the success of the Microclimate and Urban Heat Island Decision-Support Tool. The decision-support tool bridges the gap between research on urban microclimates (localised climatic conditions) and its practical application.
“The tool integrates scientific modelling with various urban heat mitigation techniques – such as building coatings, cool roofs and pavements, urban form and density, canopy cover and green space – to provide analyses of their impact, from building level to urban scale,” she said.
The decision-support tool will allow governments, developers and planners to use it for urban policy, design and planning.
The Microclimate and Urban Heat Island Performance Index indicates the impact of mitigation techniques on street-level temperature, health and mortality, and precinct-level energy consumption. This helps governments establish performance targets for more effective and climate-conscious planning across different contexts.
“These smart methodologies address the demand for heat mitigation techniques at a local level with the ability to be scaled nationally. The future of our cities depends on it,” Ding said.