Wendy Steele and colleagues write in The Conversation (16.3.16) about policy and planning responses required for large, modern cities to adapt to rising temperatures and other impacts of a warming climate.
‘Significant urban policy and planning efforts have been directed at the problem of rising heat in cities.
‘“Smart” cities create new relationships and interdependencies between people, technology and urban environments. The concept rests on the efficient, responsive and adaptive capacities of urban infrastructure. But how well does the smart city respond to the devastating scale and impact of urban heat threats such as bushfires and heatwaves?
‘… This is a pressing issue for Australian cities and urban regions, at a time when Australian climatologists are warning of the increasing frequency, severity and duration of heatwaves and bushfires.’
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