Urban heat is a major problem in Western Sydney, where temperatures can be 10 degrees Celsius higher than in the city's coastal areas. A new school program is asking teens to consider potential fixes.
Doonside Technology High students found unshaded fields were often the hottest parts of the school.Western Sydney school students were asked to find local solutions to urban heat issues in a subject taught this term at several public schools.
Temperatures can be up to 10 degrees higher in Sydney's west on hot days compared to coastal parts of the city.The students' findings are being presented at an event at Western Sydney University to local government and industry.Share article Public misting stations, fast-growing shade trees and minimised dark surfaces are some of the ideas high school students have come up with to help solve urban heat issues in their schools and community. A new program involving more than 900 students from nine public schools in Sydney's west asked students how they would address urban heat and spread the message to their community. Orange in this thermal image of a playground indicates hotter surfaces and purple indicates cooler surfaces.The teens will pitch their final ideas to local government, academics, and industry figures on Friday at an event at Western Sydney University. Doonside Technology High students will pitch a plan to plant native strangler figs to shade the school's tennis courts, which the students found was the hottest part of the playground. Using thermal imaging cameras and data loggers, the students found the tennis courts reached 45 degrees Celsius on a hot day.ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring"Compared to other trees … rather than focusing on going up, span out, creating more shade," year 10 student Diamond Mansouri said. "Due to the lack of shade, people experience a lot of side effects of the heat such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion." Fellow Doonside Technology student Celeste Martinez said more trees like this were needed in the Blacktown area. She said walking home from school on a hot day took a lot longer because she needed to spend time waiting in the shade to cool down. "The school is just a microclimate and we could do this on a bigger scale, which would help the Blacktown area," Celeste said. Granville Boys High School students came up with misting stations at the school gate to cool students down coming back to class from the oval.ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring"It's a very high-density area, so there are a lot of students squeezing through the gates to get to the bubblers," year 10 student Ayoe Holland said. Other ideas to cool down school environments include using cooler materials to build more shade, such as timber coated in greenery, and planting bushes that have high transpiration rates.Students at Doonside Technology also designed a multilingual poster campaign to communicate with Western Sydney's diverse community. Year 10 student Yshie Cualbar helped develop signage in Tagalog, which is spoken by 3.8 per cent of residents in the Blacktown area, according to the latest census.Geography teacher Liam Culhane said it was important to their class, which had students who spoke languages including Samoan, Tagalog, Burmese, and Farsi at home.Mr Culhane said. "They've recognised that our area needs this information and we are an area, based on urban heat island effect and heat sink, that is worse affected in Sydney compared to other places." Students at Macarthur Girls High School will pitch to cool down their community by reducing dark surfaces and implementing a misting system in Parramatta Square. The program, called 50°C: Climate, Heat and Resilience, was developed by Powerhouse Parramatta and Lang Walker Family Academy with support from the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer.Urban heat is a major issue in Western Sydney, where temperatures can be 10 degrees Celsius higher than in the city's coastal areas on hot days. Climate modelling suggests the number of heatwaves will increase, building to 16 days over 35C by 2030 and 46 days by 2090. Sophie Poisel, who helped develop the program, said it was important to give students the chance to learn about the impacts of heat and how to work for change in their area. "We know that heatwaves kill more people than all other natural disasters combined in Australia," Ms Poisel, the head of Lang Walker Family Academy"It's really important that they know how to keep cool and then can develop some leadership skills to push for the types of changes that they want to see in their community and their school."Your information is being handled in accordance with the
Urban Heat Fixes How To Fix Urban Heat Western Sydney Heat Climate Change Western Sydney Urban Heat Island Urban Heat Impact Doonside Technology High School Western Sydney University Granville Boys High School 50°C: Climate Heat And Resilience Powerhouse Parramatta Lang Walker Family Academy NSW Chief Scientist And Engineer Office
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