title: Urban vegetation for reducing heat related mortality.
abstract: The potential benefit of urban vegetation in reducing heat related mortality in the city of Melbourne, Australia is investigated using a two-scale modelling approach. A meso-scale urban climate model was used to quantify the effects of ten urban vegetation schemes on the current climate in 2009 and future climates in 2030 and 2050. The indoor thermal performance of five residential buildings was then simulated using a building simulation tool with the local meso-climates associated with various urban vegetation schemes. Simulation results suggest that average seasonal summer temperatures can be reduced in the range of around 0.5 and 2 °C if the city were replaced by vegetated suburbs and parklands, respectively. With the limited buildings and local meso-climates investigated in this study, around 5-28% and 37-99% reduction in heat related mortality rate have been estimated by doubling the city's vegetation coverage and transforming the city into parklands respectively.
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: Dong.Chen@csiro.au.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thatcher
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.affiliation: Nursery & Garden Industry Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kachenko
authors.affiliation: Nursery & Garden Industry Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prince
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002947:Cities; D002958:City Planning / Q000379:methods*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006798:Housing; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D063245:Plant Development; D012621:Seasons
keywords: Climate change; Heat waves; Mortality rate; Urban heat island; Urban vegetation