Urban Heat
Regenerating our urban areas not only helps biodiversity - helping our plants, pollinators and other species to thrive - but also helps in another important way.
Greening our cities
Greening our cities, towns and suburbs helps us to feel cooler. Plantings provide vital shade, block out intense sunrays and heat and create natural air conditioning through plants’ transpiration.
Our B’Cool program responds to an unfortunate reality - climate change is increasing average temperatures in Australia and the number and duration of extreme hot weather events. And the urban heat island effect is increasing heat-related impacts, making temperatures more severe.
The Urban Heat Island Effect
On a hot day in Australian cities, it can be four degrees Celsius hotter than vegetated areas outside the cities. The high thermal mass of hard surfaces absorb the sun’s radiation and keep the heat in.
However, as students learn - and implement - the more trees and shrubs we plant, the more we can help cool our cities and suburban neighbourhoods.
The B’Cool enrichment program is educational, positive and practical. It equips students with understandings of the science behind the urban heat island effect, how to map and measure heat in their own school grounds - and importantly, how their actions in planting and ‘green infrastructure’ can make a difference to make them ‘cool’.