Smart and Cool Places in NSW

Saving lives by creating cooler cities and towns in NSW and protecting residents from heatwaves. A NSW-specific pilot, to establish a National Heat Vulnerability Observatory (NaHVO).

Last updated: 25 July 2023

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The main town strip of shops in Dubbo, with cars driving along the road and parked to the side.

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Introduction

Our towns and cities are sweltering during the summer. Quickly figuring out how to deal with this issue is very important.

This project is a trial specifically for NSW on how better to handle urban heat. It will set up an online tool called the NaHVO. The NaHVO will have standard methods for keeping track of local heat and finding ways to cool down our cities. It will do this by making it easier to collect, measure and report local heat vulnerability issues.

NSW is leading the charge, with a pilot to develop the NaHVO and link it to the NSW Digital Twin, which will eventually be able to be used Australia-wide.

Challenge

In Western Sydney, the average temperatures are rising because of climate change. Temperatures have reached a maximum of 48.9°C.

Heatwaves are very dangerous. They cause more deaths in Australia than any other natural disaster. They hit the most vulnerable people in our communities the hardest. Extreme heat increases hospital admissions and places strain on our health system.

When it’s hot, we use more electricity to cool our buildings. This increases our impact on the environment.

Also, long periods of extreme heat can damage our infrastructure and other services. Cities can get even hotter than other places because of the 'heat island’ effect. This happens when hard surfaces like roads hold onto heat and make the temperature rise. In NSW, almost 90% of people live in towns or cities.

Solution

This project is a NSW-specific pilot, to establish an NaHVO.

The NaHVO will have standard methods for reporting and measuring overheating locally. It will also identify opportunities to cool down Australia’s cities. By establishing consistent processes, NaHVO will enable collaboration between stakeholders, and support evidence-based decisions for specific locations.

Smart and Cool Places Phase 1 will develop a digital capability in NSW to increase the state’s resilience to urban overheating. The project will inform how this work can be scaled to all communities in NSW.

Expected outcomes

Smart Places outcome areas:

Environmental quality
health and wellbeing.

The NaHVO will provide in-depth data and consistent processes for reporting and measuring overheating. It will also identify opportunities to cool down Australia’s cities. This project will develop the foundations for the NaHVO, with initial launches in 2 NSW towns (Dubbo and Maitland). In Phase 2, this will be expanded to other NSW cities and towns.

NaHVO will provide:

city/town specific datasets for heat vulnerability that are tailored to specific locales
state and national datasets to provide the ability to monitor the heat vulnerability of Australian cities
performance measures and key indicators to establish a consistent methodology for heat-vulnerability assessment and benchmarking

analytical modelling for city and precincts for analysis of mitigation and adaptation interventions
data interoperability with the NSW Digital Twin and other urban networks and government data platforms.