Thermal video and still images including aerials are available on request.
Nick Williams, University of Melbourne, P: 03 9035 6850, E:
Andrew Coutts, Monash University, P: 03 9905 8284, E:
Nerissa Hannink, University of Melbourne media office, P: 8344 8151, M: 0430 588 055, E:
As Melbourne swelters through another heat wave, scientists are using thermal imaging to work out how plants can be used to reduce the severe temperatures in our cities.
Because cities are covered in heat absorbing, hard surfaces such as concrete and bitumen they absorb and store heat, making urban areas warmer than the surrounding countryside, especially at night.
Temperatures can be as much as 4 degrees warmer in the city of Melbourne than surrounding areas - this is known as the ’urban heat island effect’. And on rainy days these hard, non-porous surfaces also prevent water being absorbed into the ground so that little moisture remains in the urban environment.
A team of University of Melbourne and Monash University researchers is trying to establish how street trees, parks, green roofs and green facades (collectively known as green infrastructure) can interact with urban design to reduce temperatures in cities.
Their results show that leafy, green streets and irrigated open space areas were much cooler than built up urban areas without green infrastructure.
Researchers have used thermal imaging and mobile weather stations during summer extreme heat events to identify some of Melbourne’s ’hot spots’ and compare these with temperatures from areas with abundant green infrastructure such as Royal Park.
This information will now be used to produce a guide with collaborators at RMIT, to demonstrate which types of green infrastructure should be installed on streets with different orientations, widths and building heights to best reduce surface temperatures.
University of Melbourne researcher Nick Williams said higher temperatures in cities were a huge concern for society, particularly vulnerable members such as the elderly, and will only increase with climate change.
"Plants are attractive, natural air conditioners so we should be using them more to cool cities. As well as providing shade, plants also cool cities by evaporating water through their leaves into the atmosphere," said Williams, from the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne.
"Irrigating green infrastructure with the abundant storm water found in our cities will increase its cooling ability and use water that would otherwise go down the drain."
Monash University’s Andrew Coutts said while the research demonstrated the benefits of increasing green infrastructure, not enough is known about what would work best in Australian cities, or how best to design green infrastructure into urban areas.
By using airborne thermal mapping and combining it with on-ground measurements, we can produce a good spatial picture of surface temperatures across the urban landscape. This will allow us to assess which areas are cooler than others and how vegetation might be helping," he said.
"The final step is to look at what features of urban greening work best to reduce heat in urban Melbourne."
It is hoped this research will show the importance of including green infrastructure in urban developments, and help guide planning in terms of the distribution, abundance and types of urban greening needed.
Researchers have shown that part of Australia’s rich plant diversity was wiped out by the ice ages, proving that extinction, instead of evolution, influences biodiversity.
University of Melbourne researchers have used the devastating 2009 Black Saturday bushfires to improve the PHOENIX Rapidfire fire behaviour model to better assist fire fighting efforts in the current fire season.
Just in time to help plan the Christmas lunch menu, a University of Melbourne zoologist and a Melbourne chef have teamed up to produce a sustainable seafood website.
Microscopic animals held algae captive and stole their genes for energy production, thereby evolving into a new and more powerful species many millions of years ago reveals a new study published today in the journal Nature.
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Last modified: 18 February 2013
