How many times have you walked down a street in the summer, maybe carrying a large suitcase feeling extremely fatigued while exposed to the sun? Most likely it happened to you a bunch of times, but have you considered that in some cities, this is a reality for months? Science has shown that climate change is increasing the risk of some types of extreme weather, particularly those related to heat. On top of that, it has been proven that more than 150 past heatwaves or droughts are in direct relation with human influence on global warming. So, while individual cities can take some action to make their constructions more climate friendly in the first place, they should also reduce climate change’s impact by making urban spaces more livable.
Today’s story is about Climateflux, a new venture that aims at improving neighborhoods by gathering detailed data on urban microclimates. Their strategy is going on “Climatewalks”, where a person walks with a backpack equipped with sensors recording environmental measures. All of this data is recorded exactly where passersby would experience it and acts a bit like a Google Street View car but carried by a person and measuring urban microclimates dynamically. These data points are then converted into a single figure measuring the human comfort and perceived temperature, the UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index). After these “micro-climatological surveys”, points of heat and physical stress are identified and enable urban planners to design their plans around the wellbeing of its citizens.
Amman is a great example of a city under significant heat stress, with almost 7 sunshine hours per day on average and temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius for a third of the year. There, the German Society for International Cooperation and the Greeter Amman Municipality have worked with Climateflux to understand how to redesign a park and its surrounding neighborhood more livable. Concrete actions following from the Climatewalk’s insights could be where to plant more trees or install benches. Not working in the field and having lived in quite temperate climates myself, I initially wondered if the benefit of collecting all of this data outweighs the cost and work, but considering places like Amman it is crucial that any urban (re)development minimizes heat stress, to keep citizens comfortable and most importantly, safe.
Personally, I wanted to briefly tell Climateflux’s story because I was impressed by the extent to which the data collection was human centered, as it happens literally attached to a person. Being able to access such a large amount of previously untapped data is not so much important in itself, but adds tremendous value by being analyzed and modelled, giving insights that can be used for concrete urban planning decisions.