Abstract
Continued emission of greenhouse gases has led to climate change, which is increasing the intensity, frequency, and duration of climate-based hazards around the globe such as extreme heat events. Increasing the footprint of nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban areas is one strategy identified in Canada’s Climate Plan to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. This study considers two NBS to mitigate extreme heat in urban centers: increased vegetation and albedo. Within the study, the reduction in extreme heat obtained when these strategies are implemented is evaluated for the cities of: Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. The analysis is performed using a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model which is validated over historical periods and compared against weather gauging stations and surface temperature records made by satellites. The validated WRF models are then used to simulate the urban climate in these cities over past extreme heat events, with the implementation of different levels of cool roofs, urban vegetation, and a combination of both solutions. The results from these simulations permit quantifying the temperature reductions achieved by implementing these NBS in the selected cities. The outcomes of this work rovide an intuitive metric of temperature reduction with respect to the level of implementation of the selected NBS which will, in turn, be useful for building and infrastructure practitioners to plan and implement these solutions to mitigate urban heat in cities across Canada.
Presenters
Henry LuResearch Associate, Construction Research Center, National Research Council Canada, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Urban Heat Island, Climate Change, Nature-based Solutions
