City of Unley Heat Island Modelling & Opportunities

What is the WSC Toolkit?A numerical tool that support the strategic planning and conceptual design of stormwater management by:

Quantifying the multiple benefits, including

Stormwater treatment & harvesting

Urban stream health

Local microclimate

Understanding future rainfall variability and its applications for urban water management

Evaluating the overall performance of potential green infrastructure scenarios

© CRC for Water Sensitive Cities

Overall concept

© CRC for Water Sensitive Cities

Climate change (present & future), etc.

Hydrology & Ecology Urban Microclimate

Treatment and Harvesting

Performance

Stream Hydrology and Water Quality

Stream Erosion and Minor Flooding

Microclimate –Extreme Heat

Microclimate –Average summer

temperature

Drivers

Responses (modules in WSC Toolkit)

Economics

Life

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Will

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Under development

Water Restrictions Stream Health Amenity Microclimate Flooding

Feed key performance indicators (KPIs)

Aspects of a Water Sensitive City

Consolidation

Evaluation

Communication outcomes…

Overall concept

© CRC for Water Sensitive Cities

Communication outcomes…

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“…allows well-informed collaborative

decision-making by providing

assessment of various aspects of

different options…”

Case Study: City of UnleyQuantifying the urban microclimate benefits associated with green infrastructure interventions

• Area ~14 km2

• Predominantly residential

2 3

41

1. showgrounds

2. Residential 3. Residential (dense tree)

4.Commercial (Unley rd)

⁰C

Land Surface Temperature map (using Toolkit)Land cover map (using GIS)

Leader Street WSUD upgrade to an active living streetCommercial

Residential

1.2 km street

How do these WSUD interventions improve the microclimate ?

Land surface temperature (LST) reductions

• Immediately after upgrade: 40% (0.8 ha) of the site will experience LST reductions of up to 3 ⁰C

• After tree establishment: 35% area will have 0- 3 ⁰C LST reduction; 15% area will have 3-6 ⁰C

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Land Surface temperature reduction (°C)

a) after street upgrade (no established trees)

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Land Surface Temperature reduction (°C)

b) following establishment of tree canopy

• Up to 6 ⁰C LST reduction (mainly in the inter-sections) can provide considerable cooling benefit to people utilising this street.

Opportunities to extend this work• Refinement of Current Case Study:

– New microclimate module – comparative case study– Comparison with City of Unley’s independent assessment– Detailed CRC Report and Publication on collaboration

• Exploration of other case studies:– Green Hills Project– Adelaide Airport

© CRC for Water Sensitive Cities

2012 - 2021

© CRC for Water Sensitive Cities