Richard Musgrove
A new data tool is expected to allow the residents of one Australian city to work out how much heat their neighbourhood receives, and find ways of lowering heat stress.
The Darwin Living Lab Portal designed to help make Australia’s tropical capital, in the Northern Territory (NT), a more liveable, sustainable and resilient city.
“The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to future generations”
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Beating the heat is in front of mind all over Australia during summer, but particularly in the northern tropics. And working outside can be deadly in high humidity. ‘Feels-like’ temperatures have regularly peaked above 35oC this summer in Darwin.. Heat stress and heat stroke become a thing and air-conditioning bills only ever rise.
Darwin’s Living Lab Portal, just launched by Australia’s national science agency,CSIRO, may bring some relief. It is a 10-year collaboration between nation’s national science agency, the Australian and NT Governments and City of Darwin.
CSIRO Senior Environmental Scientist, Stephen Cook, called on Darwinites to use the Portal to help manage the impact of rising temperatures.
“Residents can use the portal to zoom in on their local areas, assess their heat exposure, and find solutions like planting more trees around their homes or painting their roof a lighter colour,” Mr Cook said.
Trees cool our environments and create shade in our cities. The cooling happens because of ‘transpiration’ as leaves lose water drawn through roots, from deep underground, during photosynthesis — and evaporation — from soil and plant surfaces.
And you can’t beat the laws of physics — a white roof looks that colour because the paint is reflecting all visible light, and the associated heat.
The tool is also intended to support urban planners, policymakers, and researchers in identifying heat risks and planning for sustainable urban heat mitigation in Darwin.
“Urban planners can use it to explore how city features like tree cover, green spaces, and urban density influence heat levels across suburbs,” says CSIRO.
Read more about climate and your city
CSIRO scientists are using the Portal to work out whether Darwin can improve on the 3-30-300 rule for healthier and greener cities devised by Dutch urban forestry expert Cecil Konijnendijk.
Also called the ‘access to nature’ test, the 3-30-300 guideline recommends that “every house, school and workplace should have a view of at least three mature trees, be in a neighbourhood with at least 30 per cent canopy cover and be within 300 metres of high-quality public green space,” says Konijnendijk’s Nature-based Solutions Institute.
Not difficult in a tropical city, you’d think, but in the Darwin’s local government area, tree canopy cover dropped by over 1,300 hectares or 33% from 2016 to 2021, largely due to the impact of 2018’s Cyclone Marcus. Five suburbs lost 50% of their trees.
3-30-300 is “a new metric that’s emerging based on what’s considered adequate urban tree cover for people to actually benefit,” Cook says.
“It’s also about the mental well-being aspects around having visibility and proximity to greenery.
“It’s like a benchmark rather than a performance target and poses the question: what’s the minimum level of tree canopy that everyone should have access to?”
CSIRO says it’s aiming for measurable improvements in the city’s liveability, sustainability and resilience.
Urban living lab projects are also underway in Western Sydney’s Sydney Science Park, with plans for another at Ginninderra in Canberra.
Dr Tim Muster, CSIRO Urban Living Labs leader, said Australian cities are considered among the most liveable in the world, but are becoming vulnerable to extreme climates, consume immense resources and generate a lot of waste.
“Transitioning our cities to be future-ready is critical,” Dr Muster said.
“The Urban Living Labs aim to develop and accelerate outcomes in liveability, sustainability and resilience for national benefit,”
