The city of Melbourne, Australia – in a bid to strengthen its climate resilience – is developing a tool to map heat hazards and strengthen its responses to extreme heat events. The heat risk platform is a joint project between the city and climate intelligence startup, Climasens.
Cliamsens’ technology uses live weather and climate data to identify real-time heat risk information, such as heat exposure and social vulnerability. This information will be used to map heat hotspots across the city, identify heat-vulnerable populations, and prioritize which areas require the implementation of cooling strategies and initiatives.
We’re using smarter technology to help us detect and prepare for heat events and protect our community,” said Lord Mayor Sally Capp “This new tool will identify our city’s most vulnerable areas, and we look forward to working with Climasens and their team of innovators to bring the heat risk platform to life over the coming year.”
The city council is addressing the climate emergency in a number of ways, including planting approximately 3,000 trees in the municipality each year to increase canopy cover and cool routes throughout the city. The city’s Fogo program is a food organic and garden organic collection service that has already diverted more than 2,368 tonnes of organic waste from landfill and transformed it into fertilizer for use throughout the city’s parks and gardens. The city is now working to introduce the program to more than 23,000 households, and is trialing FOGO collection in high-rise buildings.
“This partnership builds on the work council is doing to cool Melbourne by 4 degrees – from greening the city, developing resilient infrastructure and providing practical support to Melburnians during heat waves,” said co-chief heat officer, Krista Milne. Co-chief heat officer, Tiffany Crawford, added: “We hope this platform provides a solution to heat monitoring and management, helping us protect those who are most vulnerable during a heat wave, while improving our wider climate resilience planning and investment decisions.”