Urban Heat Island and Heat Vulnerability in the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area, 2016

Cities are getting hotter compared to neighbouring rural areas. This is known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and is one of the most evident impacts of climate change. Increasing vegetation in urban areas has been recognised as one way to mitigate adverse effects of urban heat. This report provides a spatial statistical analysis of the relationship between urban vegetation cover and the UHI effect and assesses heat vulnerability in Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA). The analysis makes use of data from the ABS 2016 census, 2016 vegetation cover and 2015/16 summer urban UHI and heat vulnerability estimates. To identify and map locations vulnerable to heat, data was scaled to Mesh Block level for statistical analysis, and SA1 (Statistical Area Level 1) for heat vulnerability assessment.