Sweltering Cities was so excited to host our very first Queensland event – ‘Brisbane, A Heat Safe City?’ at Griffith University on Monday the 12th of February. In the face of multiple natural disasters across the state over the summer, including a recent heatwave in Brisbane, the time is now to start the conversation around how we are going to design and build our city to adapt to climate change and produce equitable and sustainable outcomes for our residents.
Extreme heat in Brisbane is a hot topic right now, and our event was featured in the ABC and the Brisbane Times!
We were overwhelmed by the response to this event, with over 80 people attending in person and online to engage in the conversation. Thank you to those who came, asked questions, and contributed their thoughts and ideas to the conversation. Your passion and engagement truly made this event what it was!
We heard from 3 expert panellists including Anna Campbell, Executive Officer for Queensland Walks; Ryan McNeilly Smith, Senior Planner at Meridian Urban and PhD Candidate at the University of the Sunshine Cost; and Associate Professor Shannon Rutherford from the Climate Action Beacon, Cities Research Institute and School of Medicine and Dentistry at Griffith University.
Anna highlighted the impacts of heat on the walkers, rollers and strollers of Brisbane. Pedestrian footpaths, pedestrian bridges and bus stops were the big culprits, with this public infrastructure often designed and built with a lack of shade or consideration of heat. Consequently, poor design of our public spaces and active and public transport systems disincentives the community from getting outside, staying active and more broadly, minimising their carbon footprint. Some key examples included King George Square, where surfaces can get up to 75 degrees Celcius in the summer, the Kedron Brook Bikeway and pedestrian path and the recently determined Victoria Bridge – a pedestrian bridge approved without any shade infrastructure. Anna encourages people to utilise Queensland Walks’ Walk My Street Checklist to contribute valuable data about their walkability experience which their team uses to advocate for improved walking conditions in Brisbane.
Ryan brought to light the impacts of the built environment and town planning on how Brisbane residents experience heat. The urban heat island effect is caused by a variety of factors unique to urban environments, including the thermal mass of buildings, heat produced by cars, air conditioning and energy infrastructure and limited air ventilation. Ryan highlighted that town planners are tasked with shaping the planning and design of cities, natural environments and infrastructure systems, and that it is critical that planning policy is responsive to locate climates and human health to find solutions to urban heat.
Shannon discussed the impacts of heat on public health, highlighting that extreme heat is the deadliest natural disaster in Australia. Shannon noted that heat health risk is driven by exposure, susceptibility, or lack of response capacity. Those most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat in our communities include the elderly, people with multiple health conditions and those who are socially disadvantaged. Shannon shared a stark quote with our audience on how people will experience extreme heat into the future:
“The rich will find their world to be more expensive, inconvenient, uncomfortable, disrupted and colourless; in general, more unpleasant and unpredictable, perhaps greatly so. The poor will die.” Smith 2008
We asked participants to brainstorm their ideas and interventions to make Brisbane a heat safe city to add to our whiteboard. Four key themes arose from this brainstorm:
- Better planning, design and construction measures to respond to extreme heat, including climate conscious design.
- Nature based solutions including increasing green and blue infrastructure by reintroducing trees and water bodies into our built environments.
- Lower emissions from transport by encouraging more cycling and less cars, as well as the transition to renewable energy.
- Social impacts including understanding safe third places for the public and the impacts of heat on the homeless population of Brisbane.
There was also plenty of discussion in the Zoom chat from our online guests. Lots of fantastic ideas were shared, with some that stood out to us including accurate climate modelling for the tropics and subtropics to inform design standards.
The diversity of talking points made by each panellist highlighted the expansive nature of this challenge and more broadly, the impacts of climate change on the city of Brisbane. Discussions also emphasised the need for a multidisciplinary, systematic approach to tackling this problem, and solutions where our governing policies address the planning, design and construction challenges as well as health challenges associated with extreme heat. Without a multidisciplinary approach that addresses health, equity and sustainability, Brisbane will continue to hold its status as a non-heat safe city.
We are excited to use your feedback and ideas to shape our upcoming Queensland campaigns. Watch this space and connect with us on socials to keep up with our work!