Climate change mitigation
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Introduction
Uncertainty about the magnitude and timing of future climate change impacts is challenging for conventional planning processes. Given this, CRCWSC research emphasises the importance of adaptive planning and mainstreaming actions that address climate risks.
Our research on mitigating climate change impacts has identified some interesting findings, for example:
- The uncertainty associated with climate change impacts can be addressed through adaptive planning approaches that enable consideration of future scenarios such as via adaptation tipping points. (Appropriate flood adaptation: Adapting in the right way, in the right place and at the right time)
- Mitigating climate change impacts is often associated with building flood resilience, which is an integral part of a water sensitive city and can be achieved by developing a mainstreaming strategy. (Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city and Adaptation mainstreaming for achieving flood resilience in cities)
- Integrated urban water management provides a unique opportunity for passive evaporative cooling of urban environments – purposely managed irrigation and increased vegetation reduces air temperature in urban environments. (The cooling effect of irrigation on urban microclimate during heatwave conditions and The influence of increasing tree cover on mean radiant temperature across a mixed development suburb in Adelaide, Australia)
- Tourists have different comfort perception and preferences that local Australians in hot weather, based at least in part on expectation. Further, visitors’ thermal perception changes significantly following their exposure to a heatwave. (Short-term changes in thermal perception associated with heatwave conditions in Melbourne, Australia and Perceptions of thermal comfort in heatwave and non-heatwave conditions in Melbourne, Australia)
You will find a range of research reports on mitigating climate change impacts under the categories below. You can also find more information on the Urban heat, Flood resilience and Green infrastructure pages.
Flood resilience
- Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city
- Appropriate flood adaptation: Adapting in the right way, in the right place and at the right time
- Adaptation mainstreaming for achieving flood resilience in cities
- Extended ATP approach to include the four domains of flood risk management: Manual and prototype software tool
Understanding urban heat
- Short-term changes in thermal perception associated with heatwave conditions in Melbourne, Australia
- Thermal infrared remote sensing of urban heat: Hotspots, vegetation, and an assessment of techniques for use in urban planning
- Perceptions of thermal comfort in heatwave and non-heatwave conditions in Melbourne, Australia
- Visitors’ perception of thermal comfort during extreme heat events at the Royal Botanic Garden Melbourne
- Multi-stakeholder scenarios for decision-making in the face of climate change: the matter of scale
- Simulating the surface energy balance over two contrasting urban environments using the Community Land Model Urban
- Remotely sensed thermal pollution and its relationship with energy consumption and industry in a rapidly urbanizing Chinese city
Cooling with green infrastructure
- Assessing practical measures to reduce urban heat: Green and cool roofs
- The cooling effect of irrigation on urban microclimate during heatwave conditions
- Development of the VTUF-3D v1.0 urban micro-climate model to support assessment of urban vegetation influences on human thermal comfort
- Urban populations’ vulnerability to climate extremes: mitigating urban heat through technology and water-sensitive urban design
- The influence of increasing tree cover on mean radiant temperature across a mixed development suburb in Adelaide, Australia
- Planning for cooler cities: A framework to prioritise green infrastructure to mitigate high temperatures in urban landscapes
- VCCCAR report: A multi-scale assessment of urban heating in Melbourne during an extreme heat event and policy approaches for adaptation
- The effect of water sensitive urban design and outdoor water-use practices on urban microclimate
Building resilience in ecosystems
Research application
The CRCWSC’s research to mitigate climate change impacts has been applied to a range of projects, for example:
- Several urban renewal projects proposed development typologies that mitigate heat (Ideas for a Water Sensitive Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor) and irrigated, well-treed and vegetated public realm landscapes that provide cooling and microclimate benefits (Ideas for Batavia Coast Marina Stage 2 and Ideas for Ripley Valley).
- Precinct scale developments at Bentley and Tonsley proposed using water and vegetation in the landscape and urban form to achieve multiple community benefits such as improving stormwater quality, safely conveying floodwaters, improving urban microclimate and mitigating urban heat.
- Proposals for Ripley Valley, Tonsley and Aquarevo were designed to deliver alternative water sources to make developments more resilient to climate shocks.
- Flood resilience strategies for future developments at Aquarevo and Fishermans Bend incorporate multiple use corridors and urban form that captures and manages stormwater.
Tools and guidelines
We have developed industry guidance to assist decision making regarding climate change impacts, for example:
- Guidance on approaches to urban stormwater management that support the transition of urban areas to water sensitive cities and towns (blueprint2012 and blueprint2013)
- Guidance on an adaptive planning approach using adaptation tipping points to increase the resilience of water infrastructure systems (Appropriate flood adaptation: Adapting in the right way, in the right place and at the right time)
- Options to enhance flood resilience by applying water sensitive solutions and a framework to mainstream flood resilience actions (Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city)
- Guidance on placing street trees for the largest cooling benefits for people which includes ways to achieve well-watered, healthy trees (Trees for a cool city)
Infographics
Infographic 1
Analysis procedure used to incorporate flood resilience in WSUD (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 38.)
Infographic 2
Urban form typologies (Marrickville) (CRCWSC, undated, Ideas for a Water Sensitive Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 10.)
Infographic 3
The ‘4RAP’ model of available strategies to enhance flood resilience (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 25.)
Infographic 4
The ‘4 Domains’ Approach (4DA) (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: Guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 33.)
Infographic 5
Key environmental components influencing human thermal comfort during the day (Coutts A and Tapper N, 2017. Trees for a cool city: Guidelines for optimised tree placement. Melbourne Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 8.)
