Heat kills more Australians than bushfires, floods and storms combined. Melbourne has the dubious record of having the worst heat-related death rate of all the capital cities.
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00:00 For a city defined by its livability, extreme heat can cast a shadow on staying comfortable
00:08 in Melbourne.
00:09 We know that we're now in an officially declared El Niño.
00:14 We need to be prepared for the coming hot weather.
00:17 Those paved parts of the city, if there's no cooling strategy, they can be 10, 20, 30
00:21 degrees hotter than the shaded parts of the municipality.
00:26 To help keep visitors and locals cool, Melbourne City Council is rolling out a range of initiatives
00:32 under its recently endorsed Heat Safe City principles, including increasing opening hours
00:38 of air-conditioned libraries.
00:41 Here if you do come to a place like Ngaumnagoo on a really hot day, we'll also be handing
00:46 out heat kits with water, hydrolights, towels.
00:49 An online tool which uses 3D heat mapping is also up and running to provide updates
00:55 on heat risks in real time.
00:57 Our cool routes map, which you can find online, will show not necessarily where the fastest
01:02 routes are through the city, but where the most tree-lined routes are or where the shade
01:07 from the buildings are.
01:08 And this is one of those routes.
01:10 It's lined with trees and permeable pavement and it feels like a refuge from the blistering
01:16 sun.
01:17 We've also been working with a climate tech start-up called Climasense to map the city,
01:22 so really integrating real climate data and weather data to understand and overlay that
01:28 with social vulnerability.
01:30 Beyond this summer, Council says planting more trees and further eco-friendly innovation
01:36 is a critical part of Melbourne's long-term heat safe plan.
01:40 Making sure that those pavements are permeable, letting the water through, is really important.
01:45 That helps keep the city cool because it helps keep that urban forest as healthy as possible.
01:50 For now, Melburnians are keeping cool any way they can.
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