Brisbane Smart Growth Policy and Urban Heat Island
Smart growth is a planning concept that aims to build a more compact city design with diverse transportation options and mixed use of land. This concept is considered to address today’s urban challenge of pollution, congestion, long commute time and loss of natural habitat. Deilama and Kamruzzaman (2017) further investigated how this concept impact the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in Brisbane in 2023, by taking data from 1991 until 2013.
The study models 5 (five) different neighbourhood planning scenario and found that regardless of the scenario taken, in 2023, Brisbane will experience higher level of UHI. However, the infill neighbourhood planning scenario, that assumes population growth will be accommodated within the inner suburbs of Brisbane has marginally effective to control UHI effect compared to the sprawl development scenario. In addition, the study suggests that initial neighbourhood planning to be crucial in mitigating extreme UHI effect increase, compared to intervention and policies that are adopted later in the city development.
Reference:
Deilami, K., & Kamruzzaman, M. (2017). Modelling the urban heat island effect of smart growth policy scenarios in Brisbane. Land Use Policy, 64, 38-55.