Latest news with #urbanheat
CTV News
20-07-2025
- Science
- CTV News
Downtown Montreal is up to six degrees hotter than Mount Royal, study finds
Research led by a Montreal student shows that downtown can be up to six degrees hotter than greener parts of the city. Research led by a Montreal student shows that downtown can be up to six degrees hotter than greener parts of the city — a temperature gap with real consequences for health and equity as climate change intensifies. Johanna Arnet is a master's student at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and a member of its Chair on Urban Forests. Her research focuses on how spatial and temporal temperature patterns vary within the city, and how urban forests can help mitigate the effects of heat. Using a bicycle with high-precision sensors — including air and surface temperature sensors, a pyranometer to measure solar radiation, and GPS — Arnet has been pedaling through different Montreal neighbourhoods to collect data at human height. 'We're sampling every second, which means we're gathering readings every few metres,' said Arnet, whose project is carried out in collaboration with both UQAM and Concordia University. 'It's very fine scale, and more relevant to human health than satellite imagery, which mostly captures surface temperatures on rooftops.' Arnet said her routes were designed to capture differences in canopy cover and built environment, two major factors influencing local temperatures. One of her new routes, added this summer, goes from downtown Montreal to Mount-Royal Park. 'Along that stretch, we found an average difference of around six degrees, which is quite significant,' she said. Temperatures are recorded between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., typically the hottest hours of the day in the city. Additional measurements are also taken at night — at least three hours after sunset — when the urban heat island effect tends to peak. Ville-Marie borough looking to make a difference The study is being done in partnership with the Ville-Marie borough and the Quartier des spectacles neighbourhood, both of which are exploring ways to reduce heat through urban greening. 'There's a whole bunch of tree-planting initiatives underway, and they were wondering which areas should be prioritized,' said Arnet. 'This project helps map out the hotter and colder areas in the borough so that decisions can be more targeted.' But cooling dense, downtown areas isn't always simple. In the Quartier des spectacles, Arnet said, the layout changes constantly to accommodate various events such as festivals. Because of this, planting permanent trees isn't always an option. Instead, the neighbourhood has turned to a more flexible solution: mobile greenery. 'They have over 100 trees in pots that can be moved around to work within the changing layout,' said Arnet. 'They even use some of them as road blockers to restrict car access, which is another innovative way to reduce heat without ripping up concrete.' Arnet stressed the importance of mixing strategies — like adding shade structures, green roofs, or green walls — especially in areas where space is limited. The resilience of the city's urban forest is also key, she added, noting the need for species diversity to protect against future pest outbreaks. 'Functional and structural diversity is crucial, trees, shrubs, and ground-level vegetation all play a role,' she said. How heatwaves expose inequality Isabella Richmond is a PhD student in biology at Concordia University researching how urban ecosystems and design can influence heat exposure and health outcomes. 'We define cities by their impervious surfaces, which basically means concrete, and in Montreal that's definitely what comes to mind when you think of downtown,' said Richmond, who is helping with Arnet's project. With fewer trees and more built infrastructure, heat accumulates and radiates through the day and night. Richmond said that a six-degree difference is far from negligible. 'To the human body, that's the difference between comfortable and dangerously hot,' she said. 'Even a half-degree can be felt, so, six degrees is massive.' She pointed to another example: the stark contrast between Park-Extension and the Town of Mount Royal. The two adjacent neighbourhoods show wide differences in canopy cover, housing density, and access to green space — and, as a result, temperature. 'There's a real imbalance in who feels the worst of the heat,' said Richmond. 'Urban design is everything.' The consequences of heat exposure go beyond discomfort. Richmond pointed to studies that have shown links between urban heat and higher risks of cardiovascular and respiratory illness. She noted that wealthier, whiter communities tend to live in cooler areas, a phenomenon she referred to as the 'luxury effect.' 'And the people who live in hotter zones often don't have access to things like air conditioning, either in their homes or even in a vehicle,' she said. 'So not only are they experiencing higher temperatures, but they don't have the same access to relief.' As climate change accelerates, the research team hopes its data will help guide how and where cooling interventions are made and ensure they reach those who need them most.
Washington Post
13-07-2025
- General
- Washington Post
What this 100-hour undertaking shows about public spaces
Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. for the best experience. In May and June, I spent 100 hours painting my largest mural yet — a 2,000-square-foot wall in NoMa, in what sociologists call a 'third place': a space for socializing that is neither work nor home. A map showing where the mural resides. 'Endless Summer' mural, 200 Florida Ave. NE FLA. AVENUE NE Metropolitan Branch Trail N.Y. AVENUE NW Gallaudet University NoMa Union Market Union Station D.C. National Mall U.S. Capitol Source: Google Earth 'Endless Summer' mural, FLORIDA AVENUE NE 200 Florida Ave. NE Metropolitan Branch Trail NEW YORK AVENUE NW Gallaudet University NoMa Union Market Union Station D.C. National Mall U.S. Capitol Source: Google Earth Nicknamed 'the bike lobby,' this large, roofed, open space is a public amenity that District planners required the developers to provide. The planners wanted an easy connection between Florida Avenue and the Metropolitan Branch Trail, a popular regional trail that connects the Maryland suburbs to NoMa and runs right by the site. The developers delivered by punching a corridor through their apartment building. Today, the constant foot and bike traffic through the space validates that idea. Andrea Limauro paints the 'Endless Summer' mural in NoMa. (Photos by Albert Ting) As with the spring season artwork for this series, I chose this wall for its location in relation to D.C.'s main climate risk in the summer: urban heat. The D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (where I work) projects that days in the summer with a heat index of 95 degrees Fahrenheit or above — often referred to as 'heat emergencies' — will increase up to three times by 2080. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Because temperatures are not the same across the city — varying according to factors such as tree cover, proximity to water, topography and land use — some communities, often lower-income, experience even hotter summers. That's why I focused on Northeast Washington, where neighborhoods along the rail lines can feel up to 17 degrees hotter than the greener areas northwest of Rock Creek Park. The rail infrastructure itself contributes: Aboveground metal tracks routinely hit more than 135°F in summer (which forces trains to run slower for safety reasons) and radiate heat well into the night. The rail yards, and the industrial businesses that usually line them in cities everywhere, tend to have fewer trees and more heat-retaining surfaces such as asphalt and flat black roofs, exacerbating the urban heat island effect. Fewer trees, higher temperatures The wall's location, directly across from the busy national, regional, cargo and Metro rails in NoMa, felt perfect for this season's mural. Like the Georgetown artwork, this project also points to one of the few solutions we have to rising temperatures in dense urban areas: building more shaded third places for people to cool off. While tree cover is essential, it's not always feasible in tight urban spaces with mazes of underground infrastructure. Thus, creating shade through architectural and design solutions — from shade umbrellas and sails in parks to awnings along retail streets, to balconies in buildings — can also play a major role in cooling our cities. Explore the mural The mural depicts a large rising sun to evoke the summer heat that will replace the cool night. The landscape is an expanded view of D.C. north of Florida Avenue. The flora throughout is purposely wild as a reminder that nature will find a way to thrive. Drag to see the full on the dots to reveal details. Marvin Gaye Park This municipal park — which stretches 1.6 miles through several Northeast neighborhoods — is the city's longest. In 2006, it was renamed for the soul musician, who grew up in the area and started his career in Washington. Third places — especially when free, accessible, and welcoming — are crucial ingredients in creating real community. In a time of ever-expanding cities and deepening social disconnection, they are more important than ever. Yet they're disappearing. Urban design tactics intended to dissuade loitering and encampments end up creating unwelcoming and uncomfortable spaces for everyone. If you've struggled to find a free and comfortable place to sit in a U.S. city, this is probably why. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement This is not to say such concerns aren't legitimate. There is a housing and mental health crisis in the U.S., but poor design won't solve it. Design is not a substitute for a social programs. When we make spaces uncomfortable for some, we make them uncomfortable for all. The result is often that people with means and choices avoid these uncomfortable public spaces, which, ironically, end up being used only by the very people who were meant to be kept away. With the bike lobby, I wanted to show that the opposite approach, more equitable and democratic, should be the guiding principle for urban design: Universal comfort for all is more likely to lead to higher use and diffused ownership of the space. The mural depicts a large rising sun, along with landmarks from NoMa and communities northeast and northwest of Washington's old Boundary Street, which formed the northern boundary of the Federal City under the 1791 L'Enfant Plan. Today it's Florida Avenue. My goal was to make a space so beautiful that people would collectively care enough to maintain it. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement This is the second of four artworks Andrea Limauro is creating for his year-long 'Climate of Future Past' project about seasonal risks in four vulnerable communities around D.C. Limauro created the project in response to The Post's commission of four artworks in its 'Four Seasons' collaboration with the artist.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Extreme heat is our future – European cities must adapt
Three years ago, in Zurich for the first time, I crossed a bridge over the Limmat River and saw people floating down it in rubber rings on their way home from work, some casually holding beers. The Limmat is so clear that it almost begs you not only to jump in, but to drink it. Paris's Canal Saint-Martin has never produced either desire in me – but sweltering in last week's 38C heat, I wanted to close my eyes, pretend it was the Limmat, and leap. Others weren't so hesitant; there was a line of people going up one of the footbridges over the canal waiting for their turn to jump, dive, backflip or just belly-flop into the water. As the climate crisis throws its destructive effects ever more fully in our faces, cities during heatwaves are their own type of ground zero. It's no secret that Paris lacks green space and tree cover, ranking at the bottom of MIT's Green View index. Last week especially, I found myself longing for the expansive green lawns of Parc Montsouris – along with its free, public sparkling water fountain (one of 17 across the city). With the sidewalks sizzling and the sweat dripping, how can we create more green spaces and more tolerable streets in a densely populated city, with housing stock so susceptible to increasingly intense summer heat? The answer seems to be to squeeze in bits of vegetation and traffic-calming measures wherever possible. A green wall near Sentier Métro station; bushes, trees, flowers and wildgrasses in former parking spots on Rue de Sully; the pedestrianisation of Rue Charles Moureu in the 13th arrondissement, and hundreds more streets like them to come. There is the 'urban forest' growing in front of Paris's city hall, which is the capital's third so far, after the 470 trees that replaced a torpid stretch of concrete and sun at Place de Catalogne, and a repurposing of old railway tracks in the 20th arrondissement. On Sunday, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, inaugurated her infamous pledge to make the Seine swimmable again for the first time in a century. You might call it a gimmick, though there are Parisians excited to take the plunge. While none of these localised urban tweaks are a substitute for big-picture political action to tackle the climate crisis, we will need to use every adaptation available to make our cities tolerable in the face of extreme heat. Whether it is swimmable ponds or little pockets of shaded respite, these things all help. Here in Paris, for example, they are redoing an intersection near my apartment that is also home to a small square. Previously, everything was paved in heat-absorbing blacktop; now, the blacktop has been replaced with stone, which does a better job reflecting the sun, and half of the formerly paved surface area has been planted. The visual improvement is already incontrovertible, and in a few years, when the plants have grown to their full size, what was once a heat island will have been transformed into something far cooler and more convivial. Hidalgo's strategy hasn't been without its critics, but from the pedestrianised banks of the Seine to the proliferation of bicycle lanes, who could deny that it has been swift and high impact? According to Luc Berman at Le réseau vélo et marche, a collective working to improve cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, the percentage of trips made on bicycle in Paris has gone from 2% to 12% in the last 10 years, while car use declined from 12% to 4%. 'No other city in the world of this size has moved so quickly,' says Berman. 'It's an example of what political courage can achieve at the local level.' In the immediate aftermath of the Covid lockdowns, the city threw up concrete barriers seemingly everywhere to carve out space for bicycles, and allowed restaurants to spread out terraces into streets. Those temporary measures have now been transformed into permanent cycling infrastructure and permanent demand for the expanded restaurant terraces. Will it all be enough, though? My bedroom – off my building's inner courtyard – is fully protected from direct sunlight, but in last week's searing temperatures, sleeping was still a challenge. Marine Le Pen's far right is attempting to turn a demand for 'obligatory' air-conditioning into its cause célèbre, while of course opposing tackling the root cause of the heating, through the only forum significant enough to do so: the EU. When it comes to overheating retirement homes, schools, Métro trains and France's nuclear-powered electricity grid, other parties would be foolish to let the National Rally claim this ground – these spaces do need air-conditioning. But in Paris's 19th-century apartment stock, it's clear that it will not be coming to save us en masse. This is our future. For the moment, extreme heat is still just a week here, a week there of sweaty, sleepless nights, but it will get worse. The Canadian zoologist and climate activist David Suzuki recently declared that 'it's too late' to solve the crisis. We can, and should, do as much as we can as fast as we can to limit every 10th of a degree of additional heating, but we have harmed our present and our future in an irreversible way and we're already feeling it. All that cities can do is adapt. Some will do a better job of it than others. If that makes you go ugh, well – it's the heat talking. Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Extreme heat is our future – European cities must adapt
Three years ago, in Zurich for the first time, I crossed a bridge over the Limmat River and saw people floating down it in rubber rings on their way home from work, some casually holding beers. The Limmat is so clear that it almost begs you not only to jump in, but to drink it. Paris's Canal Saint-Martin has never produced either desire in me – but sweltering in last week's 38C heat, I wanted to close my eyes, pretend it was the Limmat, and leap. Others weren't so hesitant; there was a line of people going up one of the footbridges over the canal waiting for their turn to jump, dive, backflip or just belly-flop into the water. As the climate crisis throws its destructive effects ever more fully in our faces, cities during heatwaves are their own type of ground zero. It's no secret that Paris lacks green space and tree cover, ranking at the bottom of MIT's Green View index. Last week especially, I found myself longing for the expansive green lawns of Parc Montsouris – along with its free, public sparkling water fountain (one of 17 across the city). With the sidewalks sizzling and the sweat dripping, how can we create more green spaces and more tolerable streets in a densely populated city, with housing stock so susceptible to increasingly intense summer heat? The answer seems to be to squeeze in bits of vegetation and traffic-calming measures wherever possible. A green wall near Sentier Métro station; bushes, trees, flowers and wildgrasses in former parking spots on Rue de Sully; the pedestrianisation of Rue Charles Moureu in the 13th arrondissement, and hundreds more streets like them to come. There is the 'urban forest' growing in front of Paris's city hall, which is the capital's third so far, after the 470 trees that replaced a torpid stretch of concrete and sun at Place de Catalogne, and a repurposing of old railway tracks in the 20th arrondissement. On Sunday, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, inaugurated her infamous pledge to make the Seine swimmable again for the first time in a century. You might call it a gimmick, though there are Parisians excited to take the plunge. While none of these localised urban tweaks are a substitute for big-picture political action to tackle the climate crisis, we will need to use every adaptation available to make our cities tolerable in the face of extreme heat. Whether it is swimmable ponds or little pockets of shaded respite, these things all help. Here in Paris, for example, they are redoing an intersection near my apartment that is also home to a small square. Previously, everything was paved in heat-absorbing blacktop; now, the blacktop has been replaced with stone, which does a better job reflecting the sun, and half of the formerly paved surface area has been planted. The visual improvement is already incontrovertible, and in a few years, when the plants have grown to their full size, what was once a heat island will have been transformed into something far cooler and more convivial. Hidalgo's strategy hasn't been without its critics, but from the pedestrianised banks of the Seine to the proliferation of bicycle lanes, who could deny that it has been swift and high impact? According to Luc Berman at Le réseau vélo et marche, a collective working to improve cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, the percentage of trips made on bicycle in Paris has gone from 2% to 12% in the last 10 years, while car use declined from 12% to 4%. 'No other city in the world of this size has moved so quickly,' says Berman. 'It's an example of what political courage can achieve at the local level.' In the immediate aftermath of the Covid lockdowns, the city threw up concrete barriers seemingly everywhere to carve out space for bicycles, and allowed restaurants to spread out terraces into streets. Those temporary measures have now been transformed into permanent cycling infrastructure and permanent demand for the expanded restaurant terraces. Will it all be enough, though? My bedroom – off my building's inner courtyard – is fully protected from direct sunlight, but in last week's searing temperatures, sleeping was still a challenge. Marine Le Pen's far right is attempting to turn a demand for 'obligatory' air-conditioning into its cause célèbre, while of course opposing tackling the root cause of the heating, through the only forum significant enough to do so: the EU. When it comes to overheating retirement homes, schools, Métro trains and France's nuclear-powered electricity grid, other parties would be foolish to let the National Rally claim this ground – these spaces do need air-conditioning. But in Paris's 19th-century apartment stock, it's clear that it will not be coming to save us en masse. This is our future. For the moment, extreme heat is still just a week here, a week there of sweaty, sleepless nights, but it will get worse. The Canadian zoologist and climate activist David Suzuki recently declared that 'it's too late' to solve the crisis. We can, and should, do as much as we can as fast as we can to limit every 10th of a degree of additional heating, but we have harmed our present and our future in an irreversible way and we're already feeling it. All that cities can do is adapt. Some will do a better job of it than others. If that makes you go ugh, well – it's the heat talking. Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist
Arab News
05-07-2025
- Climate
- Arab News
As Karachi heats up, class and access divide city into a ‘climate apartheid'
KARACHI: When the sun rises over the portside slums of Keamari in the Pakistani megacity of Karachi, 48-year-old mason Fazal Rahim steps out with his rusted tools into the searing heat. By the time he returns home at night, drenched in sweat, there's often no electricity to power even a single fan. 'It's still unbearably hot and there's no electricity either,' Rahim told Arab News. 'Our home turns into a hell, the children cry and heat rashes break out on their skin.' As Pakistan's largest city sweltered through a record-breaking heatwave in June, temperatures soared past 42 degrees Celsius (over 107°F), exposing a harsh urban reality: while the wealthy kept cool in air-conditioned homes, the poor suffered hours of unrelenting heat in overcrowded neighborhoods plunged into darkness by extended power outages. Karachi's two-tiered climate reality, shaped by class and access, now resembles what human rights advocates describe as 'climate apartheid,' a term that captures how climate change disproportionately affects marginalized populations while the wealthy remain buffered. Hospitals across the city, including the government-run Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), saw a spike in heat-related illnesses. 'We had nearly a thousand patients last year who came in with heatstroke,' said Dr. Irfan Siddiqui, head of JPMC's emergency department, citing a rise in cases of dehydration, food poisoning and heat exhaustion this year. POWER DIVIDE More than 90 percent of Pakistan's international trade flows through Karachi, a city of over 20 million people and the country's economic engine. But despite its centrality to Pakistan's economy, the city's basic infrastructure, especially in its low-income neighborhoods, is chronically neglected. Some residents, like Rahim in Bhutta Village, reported only two hours of electricity in a full day last month. In stark contrast, affluent areas such as Clifton and Defense Housing Authority (DHA) remained largely unaffected by power outages, with many homes powered by private solar panels or diesel generators. K-Electric, the city's sole power distributor, insists the disparity is not based on class. 'The load-shedding schedule is purely determined on a commercial basis,' said Bilal Memon, a spokesperson for the utility. 'Areas with higher theft and lower bill recovery face longer outages.' Pakistan's National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) confirmed in its latest State of Industry Report (2023) that Karachi faces some of the highest transmission and distribution losses among major cities — a result of illegal connections, aging infrastructure, and weak governance. The report also noted that high-loss areas tend to face longer outages as a penalty mechanism. For those already on the margins, like Tahira Perveen, a widowed asthma patient residing in the low-income Manzoor colony, the unpredictability of the electricity supply can be dangerous. 'As for electricity, no one knows when it will come,' she said. 'During the heat, it [the outage] happens all night and all day.' A CITY GETTING HOTTER Karachi is among the world's ten fastest-warming megacities, according to urban climate assessments by the United Nations Environment Program. The city has warmed at nearly double Pakistan's national average, with temperatures rising by approximately 0.34°C per decade since 1960, according to Sardar Sarfaraz, the former director of the Pakistan Meteorological Department. The causes are well documented: unchecked urbanization, the destruction of green spaces, and widespread use of concrete that traps heat. Karachi lost over 20 percent of its tree cover between 2008 and 2019, according to satellite data analyzed by the Global Forest Watch platform. 'There are narrow lanes, very, very poorly ventilated houses, and it's all a concrete jungle,' said Karachi-based climate expert Afia Salam. 'There is a segment, large segment of population, which is more impacted than the others. And then on top of it, if I put the gender lens on, the women are more impacted because culturally, they do not have access to the open spaces.' Indeed, in the city's informal settlements, women and children are often confined indoors, where poor ventilation and a lack of cooling options increase health risks during heatwaves. CLIMATE INEQUALITY Pakistan is ranked among the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index by Germanwatch. Nearly 45 percent of its population lives below the poverty line, per the World Bank, and the country faces mounting challenges in coping with environmental shocks — from floods and droughts to rising temperatures. In 2024, the International Monetary Fund approved $1.3 billion in climate-linked funding for Pakistan to support adaptation and resilience efforts. But activists say little climate funding is reaching those most in need. 'The policies being made don't reflect the ground realities,' said Fatima Majeed, an activist working with coastal communities affected by rising sea levels and heat. 'The people for whom these policies are intended are rarely consulted.' Her concerns were echoed by Yasir Husain, founder of the Karachi-based Climate Action Center. 'We find that the government is least interested in this,' he said. 'When there are programs, there is funding. [But] that money is not used to help the vulnerable populations.' Sindh's Environment and Climate Change Secretary, Agha Shahnawaz Khan, pointed to ongoing efforts: penalizing smoke-emitting vehicles, tree plantation drives, mangrove restoration and solarizing public buildings. 'We will continue to lag behind until the community supports the government and the government takes proper initiatives,' he said. COOLING FOR A FEW Twelve kilometers from Rahim's baking slum, Dr. Navaira Ali Bangash lives in comfort, her home equipped with air conditioners and backup power systems. 'We are probably the most privileged people who have air-conditioning installed at our homes, offices and even in our cars,' she said. 'But then there are those underprivileged people... who cannot even afford basic fans.' While climate change is often described as a global challenge, in Karachi it is deeply local — a force that exposes long-standing inequalities in housing, infrastructure, and health care. For Rahim, the national climate discourse and international funding commitments matter little. His immediate concern is whether the ceiling fan in his single-room home will run tonight. 'Electricity [outages] have made our lives miserable,' he said, his voice tired and defeated in the oppressive heat.
