Combating climate change in an urban environment- Global Greek Influence podcast

 

Urban overheating, mitigation technologies and the impact on health (Lecture)

The lecture aims to present and discuss recent research developments in the field of urban overheating, its impact on the city life. The impacts of implementation and performance of advanced heat mitigation studies on increased urban temperatures and population health have been investigated in the study.

Energy efficiency rules considered for Northern Territory buildings, years after other states

Even on a sweltering hot day in the tropics, consultant Anya Lorimer is ready to rug up for meetings in Darwin's heavily air-conditioned office buildings.

Researchers say the Top End capital is one of the world's highest consumers of cooling energy.

And it's not just because of the year-round warm weather, according to Mattheos Santamouris, from the University of New South Wales.

"The cooling energy needs are very, very high and this is because of the quality of buildings," he said.

For more than a decade, construction in the Northern Territory has not had to meet minimum energy efficiency standards adopted around the rest of the country.

The result is a city full of commercial buildings using large amounts of energy to battle hot conditions outside and inefficient design within.

Expanding the applicability of daytime radiative cooling: Technological developments and limitations

Daytime Radiative Cooling is the most promising zero energy natural cooling technology. It can decrease the temperature of a surface up to 15 C below the ambient one under the summer sun without any energy use. We have explored the possible future developments in a recent article, outcome of a fruitful collaboration between Uni Sydney and UNSW.

Sydney’s inland suburbs are 10°C warmer than the coast in heat waves

Large-scale weather patterns and urban overheating are interacting to make Sydney’s inland suburbs up to 10°C warmer than coastal areas during extreme heat events.

Urban overheating occurs when temperatures in certain parts of an urban environment are comparatively higher than those in surrounding urban areas. The phenomenon occurs as a result of a combination of factors, including heat fluxes linked to human activity and air pollution. What’s more, artificial materials used to build roads, roofs and other urban architecture absorb solar radiation and release it slowly, further heating the air, in a way that trees and other vegetation don’t.

On the potential of demand-controlled ventilation system to enhance indoor air quality and thermal condition in Australian school classrooms

Elevated air temperature and poor IAQ are common problems in classrooms, which are exacerbated in the absence or lack of proper ventilation to remove excessive heat and stale air. Although mechanical ventilation systems dominated over natural ventilation in commercial and office buildings, natural ventilation in combination with split systems air-conditioners is typically used in Australian schools. While literature highlights different sources of pollutants in classrooms, IAQ, and associated problems, split systems are given more attention to set the classroom air temperature and respond to climate. Results presented here show empirical evidence in support of the need for adequate ventilation and IAQ in classrooms, which cannot be achieved by split air-conditioners based on cooling only policy without the reference to IAQ requirements. We showed demand-controlled ventilation system with air extraction yield to reduction of Carbon dioxide and Volatile Organic Compounds. If you like to read more check our recently published paper. 

Read more :

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378778821001225?dgcid=author

Can urban heat be mitigated in a single urban street? Monitoring, strategies, and performance results from a real scale redevelopment project

Urban overheating affects the health and wellbeing of communities, the environmental quality, and the economic performance of cities. This study demonstrates that outdoor thermal comfort can be improved in a single street by decreasing ambient (Ta) and surface (Ts) temperatures by implementing innovative and traditional heat mitigation strategies. Ten scenarios were modelled in ENVI-met and evaluated based on detailed in-situ and airborne-based meteorological data collected along Phillip Street (Parramatta) in Sydney, Australia. The best-performing scenario combining reflective materials, increased greenery, spray systems, and traditional shading provides a very significant reduction of Ta and Ts of up to 3.3 °C and 30.9 °C, respectively.