Trees help lower temperatures

Plants are attractive, natural air conditioners so we should be using them more to cool cities. As well as providing shade, plants also cool cities by evaporating water through their leaves into the atmosphere, said Dr Williams, from the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne.

Cities are covered in heat absorbing, hard surfaces such as concrete and bitumen they absorb and store heat, making urban areas warmer than the surrounding countryside, especially at night.

Their results show that leafy, green streets and irrigated open space areas were much cooler than built up urban areas without green infrastructure. They have used thermal imaging and mobile weather stations during summer extreme heat events to identify some of Melbourne’s ‘hot spots’ and compare these with temperatures from areas with abundant green infrastructure.