How Cities Around the World are Finding Ways to Beat Extreme Heat
Sourced from the Thomson Reuters Foundation
With heatwaves breaking records around the world, urban planners and local officials are coming up with solutions to keep sweltering cities cooler, and save lives.
By 2050, heatwaves will affect more than 3.5 billion people globally – half of them in urban centres - according to the U.S.-based Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).
Cities are often several degrees warmer than nearby rural areas because heat trapped by concrete and dark-coloured roads and buildings creates a "heat island" effect, meaning night-time temperatures also remain high.
It is often people living in poor neighbourhoods that tend to suffer the potentially lethal effects of extreme heat because of a lack of trees, shade and parks.
Unless planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions are slashed by 2050, 1,000 cities will experience average summer highs of 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), nearly triple the current number, according to U.N. estimates.
Here's how global cities are responding:
Going green
A 2023 modelling study by a team of researchers based on 93 cities in Europe found increasing tree cover from the European city average of 14.9% to 30% can lower the urban temperature by 0.4 C (0.72 F), which could cut heat-related deaths by a third.
From Sydney and Shanghai to Vancouver and Johannesburg, numerous cities have stepped up efforts to make urban landscapes greener by planting trees and vegetation on the walls and roofs of buildings to provide shade and help reduce temperatures.
Green roofs absorb heat and act as insulators, reducing the energy needed to provide cooling and heating, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Singapore is one city leading the way by making 100 hectares (247 acres) of building facades greener - a figure the city aims to double by 2030 - and developing about 50 nature paths.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
