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Urban heat solutions

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Glass building and tree cover
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Introduction

During heat waves, the highest temperatures are often found in urbanized areas. By 2070, 3.5 billion people will be heavily affected by heat, 1.6 billion of whom will live in urban areas (Chi Xu et al. 2020). Rising temperatures can negatively impact vulnerable people, workers, infrastructure and even GDP.

As the world warms, there is an urgent need to find ways to prevent the worse. Heat is a growing global challenge for communities large and small, across every development context, and requires collaboration amongst a wide array of disciplines and topic areas. In addition, newly sweltering countries can learn from heat-hardy ones about ways to stay cool.

This collection compiles stories from around the world on how to reduce heatwave risk.

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Knowledge base

Shade produced by trees in a city street in southern France
Updates

We need urban trees more than ever – here’s how to save them from extreme heat

Researchers studied the effects of extreme heat on urban trees in Western Sydney during the record-breaking summer of 2019–20. They reported concerns and solutions for the survival of both native Australian and exotic tree species in urban forest.
Conversation Media Group, the
Urban landscape in Singapore
Updates

Cool solutions for a hotter climate: Tackling urban heat island effect with innovation

Cities worldwide are grappling with the adverse effects of Urban Heat Island (UHI), intensified by rising global temperatures from climate change. The consequences of the UHI effect extend far beyond discomfort.
World Bank, the
Updates

As the Earth gets hotter, can our cities get cooler?

At the global scale, people in developing countries, particularly in South Asia, Africa and East Asia, who have contributed the least to cause climate change and do not have the resources to adapt are expected to have their health impacted the most.
World Resources Institute
A tired and stressed worker sweating from the hot weather in the summer working in a port goods cargo shipping logistic ground,
Blog
Kristin VanderMolen Nicholas Kimutis Benjamin Hatchett

Improving heat risk education and warning messaging: 3 recommendations

As population exposure to extreme heat increases, government agencies are developing heat health warning systems to support the public in taking protective action. The reach and effectiveness of these interventions is still a concern.
Updates

These 7 cities are tackling heatwaves with innovative solutions

Almost 90 cities issued heat alerts in the extreme weather over the summer of 2022, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. But cities are learning to tackle extreme heat – sometimes with ingenious solutions.
World Economic Forum
Sky garden
Research briefs

Growing plants on buildings can reduce heat and produce healthy food in African cities

Persistently high temperatures and related heat stress are a big problem for people living in cities, especially in slums and informal settlements. It’s a problem that is expected to continue.
Conversation Media Group, the
Updates

How India's lattice buildings cool without air con

For centuries, India’s architecture featured intricate lattice structures. Now, as modern architects search for better ways to keep buildings cool, it’s making a comeback.
British Broadcasting Corporation
Traditional windcatchers in Iran help cool houses
Updates

Keep buildings cool as it gets hotter by resurrecting traditional architectural techniques – podcast

“Modern” styles of architecture using concrete and glass have often usurped local building techniques better suited to parts of the world with hotter climates. Now some architects are resurrecting traditional techniques to help keep buildings cool.
Conversation Media Group, the
Updates

City of Rochester to use drones to collect data on climate change impacts

The City of Rochester and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will conduct a series of drone flights to better understand how higher temperatures caused by climate change affect some of the city’s most densely populated areas.
ABC News
Updates

How siestas might help Europe survive deadly heat waves

The snooze is optional. But as climate change intensifies, Northern European countries are seeing the appeal of Spain’s controversial midday break.
Wired, Condé Nast Digital