As a spring heatwave breaks temperature records in western Sydney, experts emphasize the importance of urban design in addressing the increasingly frequent and severe heat. Western Sydney, which is typically 6C to 10C hotter than the rest of the city, faces challenges that require innovative solutions to make summers more bearable for the region's 2.7 million residents.
Why is western Sydney so much hotter than the eastern suburbs and what can be done to make summer more bearable?
While western Sydney has abundant green cover compared to the eastern suburbs, in the form of native bush and farmland, Pfautsch notes the critical factor of rainfall in the east. “ gets up to 1,200mm to 1,300mm of rainfall each year, which means that green infrastructure has quite a bit of water that it can transpire, and therefore make the green spaces cool the area,” he says. “You don’t have that in western Sydney, where we have more green cover, but we only get about 700mm of rain annually.
Increasing canopy cover from trees and good irrigation plays a role, Pignatta says, as does improving energy efficiency in buildings.
Western Sydney Heatwave Urban Design Temperature Records Extreme Heat
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