Integrating planning and climatology for more liveable and heat-resilient cities

Cities modify their regional climate by altering the surface energy balance and airflow dynamic where developed areas experience elevated temperature, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Climate change exacerbates the UHI effect through the increased occurrence of heatwaves, making it certain that mitigation and adaptation to heat stress is a persistent issue for urban areas over the coming decades. Studies show that the political nature of planning and the lack of communication between planners and climatologists are two significant limitations that hinder the application of urban climate during urban planning practice. This research provides insight and direction on the relation between urban planning and urban climatology and critically how these two disciplines, when combined, can create more liveable and resilient cities. This was achieved through cities strategic plans evaluation to ascertain the degree of integration and the embeddedness of UHI and climate change into the strategic planning process. The findings reveal that science-informed city planning can provide the necessary evidence for actions supporting urban climate integration in urban planning. The evaluation also revealed that city plans showed greater awareness of climate change than the UHI. Moving forward, the research develops a simple geospatial framework to inform planners of potential UHI intensity increases due to changes in population density and green cover. This geospatial framework can support decision-making during the strategic planning process towards creating an informed decision on the development or densification of specific areas and the implications on the UHI intensity. The thesis highlights the need for integrated planning where strategic planning considers local scale studies and technical reports and have measurable UHI reduction targets. Also, climate change becomes a vehicle to address the heat stress in cities, including the UHI.