The City of Melbourne is working with the Melbourne-based climate intelligence startup ClimaSens to develop and test an innovative tool to map heat hazards across the city, writes the City Council in a statement. According to the statement, Melbourne will experience an average of 16 heat events each year by 2050.
The new heat risk platform uses live weather and climate data to identify real-time heat risk insights such as heat exposure and social vulnerability. These data can then be used to map heat hotspots across the city, identifying heat-vulnerable populations and priority areas for cooling strategies.
“Extreme heat exacerbates existing inequalities and disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in society,” said ClimaSens Co-Founder and CEO Joseph Glesta in the article. “We think it is critical to identify this risk to both populations and the places they live to better understand how to plan, prepare and respond to future heat waves.”
Melbourne’s Co-Chief Heat Officer Krista Milne added that the partnership “builds on the work the Council is doing to cool Melbourne by 4 degrees”. The measures include greening the city, developing resilient infrastructure and providing practical support to citizens during heat waves. em
