Urbanized areas\u00a0may only occupy around\u00a02% of the world\u2019s habitable land, but they are the biggest\u00a0drivers of global climate change. Referred to as\u00a0\u201curban heat islands\u201d, cities are usually hotter than rural areas for numerous reasons.<\/p>\n
Traffic pollution creates a greenhouse effect that traps\u00a0heat at night. While the cutting down of local trees means the lose of their ability to absorb CO2\u00a0and convert it into oxygen. Pavement quickly release the heat they retain back into the air, while\u00a0rainwater is\u00a0drained away in sewer systems, depriving the area of the cooling effect of rain soaked into soil.<\/p>\n
Then we have\u00a0people. They generate body heat and condition\u00a0buildings to keep themselves warmer or colder – air conditioning meaning that warm temperatures from inside the building are transferring into the streets outside, adding to the city\u2019s heat island effect.<\/p>\n
Discussions around\u00a0global warming often tend to overlook urbanization’s contribution to the problem, instead concentrating on what is happening to the temperature across the world.<\/p>\n
Meaning\u00a0policy makers\u00a0aiming to fight global warming overlook the fact that by focusing on ways to make cities cooler, they would\u00a0contribute immensely to the solution. Perhaps much more of a contribution than focusing on global carbon reduction agreements that either fail or are\u00a0severally\u00a0reduced.<\/p>\n
The facts are\u00a0that cities have been living with the effects of local warming for decades. So by observing cities around the world, we can determine\u00a0what needs to happen, and get cities that do less to focus on doing more.<\/p>\n
Research has found that shade can make a\u00a0significant\u00a0difference to the climate of\u00a0tropical cities. This is not about shading buildings exactly, but to encourage an urban design\u00a0that makes the spaces between buildings naturally shaded without compromising the buildings’ ability to have\u00a0sunlight.<\/p>\n
Achieving this means an intelligent combination of building heights and geometry, along with elements such as canopies, awnings and urban tree plantings.<\/p>\n
With care and attention to detail, urban\u00a0areas can combine good shading with generous street\u00a0trees\u00a0to cool neighbourhoods to more moderate temperatures. And even a couple degrees can make a huge difference in an unbearable hot area of a city.<\/p>\n
Some\u00a0cities around the world are enacting policies to\u00a0make a difference. Heat island policies including planning requirements such as tree planting and reduced exposure of paved areas in parking lots are a couple examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Urbanized areas\u00a0may only occupy around\u00a02% of the world\u2019s habitable land, but they are the biggest\u00a0drivers of global climate change. Referred to as\u00a0\u201curban heat islands\u201d, cities are usually hotter than rural areas for numerous reasons. Traffic pollution creates a greenhouse effect that traps\u00a0heat at night. While the cutting down of local trees means the lose of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3409,"featured_media":17876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[366,367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","category-sustainable-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n