What's behind Saudi Arabia's plan to air-condition Riyadh?

It is estimated that around 13,000 cities, which are home to over 1.7 billion people, are facing extremely challenging climatic conditions due to the increasing temperatures. Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is known to be one of the hottest cities globally, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius during the summer.

This extreme urban heat has affected over 450 cities worldwide, leading to higher energy consumption and negatively impacting people's health, resulting in heat-related illnesses and fatalities.

Dr. Mattheos Santamouris: Leading the Charge in Urban Cooling Innovations at UNSW Sydney

In a world grappling with rising urban temperatures and the urgent threat of climate change, innovative solutions to cool our cities are more important than ever. At the forefront of this crucial effort is Scientia Professor Mattheos Santamouris from UNSW Sydney, whose pioneering work, highlighted in Nature Cities, showcases groundbreaking techniques to combat urban overheating, with a special focus on the sweltering city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


Over a rigorous three-year period marked by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Santamouris and his team undertook an ambitious project to address the extreme heat in Riyadh, where temperatures can soar to an incredible 45°C. Their comprehensive research explored the impact of ‘super cool’ building materials, the introduction of green spaces, and the application of energy-efficient retrofits, leading to a strategy that could reduce urban temperatures by as much as 5°C. This achievement marks a pivotal step in improving urban living standards, cutting down on energy usage, and enhancing the quality of life for residents.

Proceedings 6th International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands 4 - 7 December 2023 Melbourne, Australia

 

Link: Proceedings 6th International Conference

Green roofs can cool cities and save energy: modelling

New research shows rooftop greenery coverage can help cool down a major city while reducing energy demand.
Extensive greenery coverage on building rooftops could significantly reduce temperatures at the city scale and decrease energy costs, according to a new study.
The research, led by Indira Adilkhanova and Professor Geun Young Yun from Kyung Hee University and co-authored by UNSW Sydney Scientia Professor Mattheos (Mat) Santamouris, found that green roofs could cool South Korea’s capital city by around 1°C during summer and slash the energy demand associated with cooling by almost 8 per cent under maximum coverage.
The study, published in Nature Cities, is the first to analyse the transformative effect of green roofs on urban-scale energy consumption and climate conditions and could provide a template for modelling their potential in other cities worldwide.

Ματ. Σανταμούρης: Ο αγώνας για την απανθρακοποίηση δεν είναι τεχνολογικός αλλά οικονομικοκοινωνικός

 

Urban Overheating Mitigation and Adaptation

 

Quantifying the energy impact of heat mitigation technologies at the urban scale

 Advanced urban heat mitigation technologies that involve the use of super-cool materials combined with properly designed green infrastructure lower urban ambient and land surface temperatures and reduce cooling consumption at the city scale. Here we present the results of a large-scale heat mitigation project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Daytime radiative coolers, as well as cool materials combined with irrigated or non-irrigated greenery, were used to design eight holistic heat mitigation scenarios. We assess the climatic impact of the scenarios as well as the corresponding energy benefits of 3,323 urban buildings.