Countering climate change is often perceived as the holy grail of environmental aspirations. While PlantingSeeds’ programs focus on urban regeneration – planting, habitats and citizen science included – we also address climate change by teaching about it and countering the urban heat island effect. We were fortunate enough to receive permission from @NASA Kids to adapt a brilliant activity to enable school children to measure how urban heat impacts school grounds – and how this can be countered with real and not synthetic materials. That is, grass – not fake grass, shrubs – not concrete, etc. The images below at a recent public school B&B Highway session show the huge differences. Thanks to @AW Edwards and @Ventia for the support that enables us to work with so many students and schools so that they can be eco champions and learn how to walk the talk. With Drummoyne Public in Canada Bay LGA the first school to participate in the urban heat activity in early 2025 and with at least 10 following suit in the last few months, our plantings and activities are taking the heat off and helping to cool down our neighbourhoods.
Why cities are hot stuff and the research taking the heat
Cities can be hot stuff because they are full of hard and dark-coloured surfaces.
The urban heat island effect refers to localised warming caused by a high concentration of dark, paved surfaces such as roads, rooves, and parking lots. These surfaces absorb the sun's heat rather than reflect it, resulting in higher surface and ambient temperatures. Features of the urban landscape, particularly dark surfaces, contribute to the formation of urban heat islands, which can negatively impact community well-being by creating hotter homes and streets, inversely affecting biodiversity and its regeneration.
This highlights the benefits of patched greening in urban areas – supporting the efforts of PlantingSeeds and its B&B Highway initiative. By adding numerous small patches of habitat to the urban landscape, we can make significant strides in conserving native plants, birds, and insects – and cooling down the neighbourhood.
Professor Sebastian Pfautsch co‑leads the City Microclimates project. This project records air temperature data at more than 600 locations across local government areas in eastern and western Sydney to benchmark city microclimates.
Some of his research’s findings https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/urban-transformations/projects/current_projects/city_microclimates
- A microclimate survey conducted in the City of Sydney between December 2023 and March 2024 collected 1.5 million measurements. The hottest day during the survey was 9th December 2023, which recorded 45.3 °C in St Peters versus ~30 °C in the nearby Botanic Gardens – highlighting the cooling influence of vegetation. As Professor Pfautsch states: ‘Replacing hard surfaces with plants in southern, central, and western areas in Sydney is crucial. We must focus on innovative ways to bring nature back into an urban environment that is dominated by buildings, roads and other materials that only make summers hotter’.
- Professor Pfautsch has led a world-first project to use the irrigation network of Bicentennial Park — within Sydney Olympic Park — to maximise the cooling benefits that the park provides. Professor Pfautsch emphasises the park cool‑island approach: well-designed urban green spaces which can significantly drop ambient temperatures in heatwave conditions. (https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/future-makers/issue-eight/using-city-parks-to-beat-urban-heat)
- The SIMPaCT project in Bicentennial Park uses AI-driven soil‑moisture-based smart irrigation to maximise transpiration cooling. It can reduce air temperature by >3 °C in the park, and the cooling effect is expected to extend at least half a kilometre into the surrounding urban land.
#biodiversity #climate #nature #ThinkGloballyActLocally #ClimateChangeResilience #BiodiversityRegeneration
Links
https://www.climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/impacts-climate-change/built-environment/urban-heat
https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/policy-and-legislation/resilience-and-natural-hazard-risk/urban-heat
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/heat-islands
https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/persons/sebastian-pfautsch
Article by Amritha Shenoy