Elsevier

Urban Climate

Volume 25, September 2018, Pages 51-63
Urban Climate

Policy recommendations to increase urban heat stress resilience

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2018.05.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Literature on adaptation to urban heat stress resilience has been reviewed.

  • Holistic policy recommendations are made to increase urban heat stress resilience.

  • Public health, building industry, urban planning and infrastructure are addressed.

  • Recommendations for future research are provided.

Abstract

As the frequency and intensity of heatwaves are growing, strategies to improve our resilience are becoming more vital. Policies to increase heat stress resilience are mostly isolated across different disciplines and government departments. A holistic approach would be necessary that mitigates the numerous negative impacts of heatwaves on public health, urban infrastructure and services through adaptation to heatwaves in the realm of public health, building and construction industry, and urban planning and infrastructure.

This paper reviews the research on heat stress adaptation measures, before presenting recommendations for a range of integrated policy measures to increase the heat stress resilience of urban populations in Australian cities. The recommended policy measures include information dissemination, incentives and disincentives, promotion, demonstration and regulations. The paper concludes by identifying directions for further research and reinforcing the multiple benefits that can result from the implementation of heat stress resilience policies and strategies.

Section snippets

Urban heatwaves and their negative impacts

Heatwaves have become a growing concern primarily due to their significant negative impact on public health and well-being (Zaidi and Pelling, 2015), in addition to impacts on urban infrastructure and economic activity (Zuo et al., 2014). The most extensively studied heatwave event, with regard to its death toll, was the European series of heatwaves in 2003. During that summer, the deaths of 70,000 people were associated with excess heat stress (Robine et al., 2008).

The alarming danger of

Policy support for heat stress resilience

A policy framework summarised by Fenna (1998) was adopted to classify the recommended policy responses. After Fenna (1998), Maddison and Denniss (2013) differentiated four main groups of policy instruments, with these instruments used by governments to achieve specific objectives. The instruments are grouped into four categories comprising: information and engagement, incentives and disincentives, government provision and demonstration, and regulations. Information and engagement refer to

Conclusion

Climate change is not simply a matter of forecasting since it has been happening (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014; Major Cities Unit, 2015). Mitigation strategies can only decrease the intensity of this process. Both the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have been increasing in Australia, and globally, due to climate change with a predicted further increase in the future (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014). Thus, adaptation to increasing heat stress due to

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living Ltd. supported by the Cooperative Research Centres program, an Australian Government initiative, three Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarships and a PG 083920 (Research Themes Investment Scheme) Seed Funding 2017 by the University of South Australia.

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