How to Cool Down a City - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/18/world/asia/singapore-heat.html
Widely planting street-level trees along sidewalks across the city is the most effective solution to reduce temperature, according to researchers at the Urban Climate Lab.
“We can’t rely on a centralized, intense clustering of urban forests or microforest to provide cooling for the whole city. We really have to disperse,” said Dr. Stone from the Urban Climate Lab.
Can Singapore’s efforts to reduce urban heat islands actually outpace rising global temperatures? Probably not, local officials acknowledge. But holding temperatures steady would be a huge victory.
“I think we’re just trying to not see the increases that we anticipate if we don’t do anything,” said Adele Tan, deputy chief executive of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Urban planners and policymakers are recognizing that inventions to cool down cities also help in other ways. Green corridors and large green spaces support biodiversity, provide recreational spaces for residents and aid flood prevention.
“It’s a pleasant surprise to be here at this moment in climate change, realizing that our number one intervention has all these other benefits,” Dr. Stone said.