Cooling measures rolled out in Melbourne this summer

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Heat kills more Australians than bushfires, floods and storms combined. Melbourne has the dubious record of having the worst heat-related death rate of all the capital cities.

Transcript

00:00 For a city defined by its livability, extreme heat can cast a shadow on staying comfortable

00:08 in Melbourne.

00:09 We know that we're now in an officially declared El Niño.

00:14 We need to be prepared for the coming hot weather.

00:17 Those paved parts of the city, if there's no cooling strategy, they can be 10, 20, 30

00:21 degrees hotter than the shaded parts of the municipality.

00:26 To help keep visitors and locals cool, Melbourne City Council is rolling out a range of initiatives

00:32 under its recently endorsed Heat Safe City principles, including increasing opening hours

00:38 of air-conditioned libraries.

00:41 Here if you do come to a place like Ngaumnagoo on a really hot day, we'll also be handing

00:46 out heat kits with water, hydrolights, towels.

00:49 An online tool which uses 3D heat mapping is also up and running to provide updates

00:55 on heat risks in real time.

00:57 Our cool routes map, which you can find online, will show not necessarily where the fastest

01:02 routes are through the city, but where the most tree-lined routes are or where the shade

01:07 from the buildings are.

01:08 And this is one of those routes.

01:10 It's lined with trees and permeable pavement and it feels like a refuge from the blistering

01:16 sun.

01:17 We've also been working with a climate tech start-up called Climasense to map the city,

01:22 so really integrating real climate data and weather data to understand and overlay that

01:28 with social vulnerability.

01:30 Beyond this summer, Council says planting more trees and further eco-friendly innovation

01:36 is a critical part of Melbourne's long-term heat safe plan.

01:40 Making sure that those pavements are permeable, letting the water through, is really important.

01:45 That helps keep the city cool because it helps keep that urban forest as healthy as possible.

01:50 For now, Melburnians are keeping cool any way they can.

01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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