By Violet Li
Environment advocacy organisation Sweltering Cities delved into the City of Casey to research how its urban planning could be more heat-safe.
Senior Community Campaigner Sophie Emder took several community members for a 45-minute Cool Walk through the streets of Narre Warren and Cranbourne respectively on 23 and 24 February to map hot and cool spots in the areas.
The walks started from the train stations in the suburbs, spanning less than 1.5 kilometres each.
“We created this idea of doing cool walks to answer this question that, is the way that our suburbs are being built making it easier or harder for people to travel and get around their suburb on hot days and during heat waves,” Sophie said.
She said the purpose of the walk was to collect powerful data and evidence from the community input about what are the solutions to extreme heat in their suburbs and how cooler suburbs could be built to keep everyone healthy during heat waves.
“Extreme heat kills more people in Australia than all other environmental disasters,” she said.
“Heat wave’s getting longer and hotter, and people are feeling the heat.”
Equipped with a notepad, participants were tasked with mapping hot spots in the areas through rating scale questions and qualitative questions.
“We had a series of questions. We ask people at every stop. Questions are like, on a scale of one to five, how comfortable is it to wait at this train station on a hot day or during a heat wave?” Sophie said.
“We had qualitative questions, like what are the specific features that would make this bus stop, more comfortable for you to wait at on a 40-degree day?
“We also were collecting other comments and insights from people, like doing voice recordings, taking photos, taking videos.
“We also had some temperature thermometers. We gave people temperature monitors, and they were measuring the difference, for example, between dark-coloured and lighter-coloured concrete or the difference in temperature between the grass.”
Community members told the organisation that they wanted more shaded bus stops so that they could wait comfortably on hot days. They wanted more water at train stations. They wanted to see cooler and lighter building materials.
Sophie noted that intersections could become mini urban heat islands on a really hot day.
“They’re uncomfortable for people to walk around. They’re really busy. There’s often no assisted way to cross these intersections,” she said.
“People are waiting for long amounts of periods, in the burning sun feeling unsafe.”
Sophie said the organisation would create a report with all the findings within the next two weeks.
“We’re going to be putting it out to the public, to decision-makers, policymakers, so anyone can look at it and use it and do something with it,” she said.
City of Casey councillor Kim Ross said the Cool Walk was a great initiative to show the challenges of increasing participation in active transport.
“The lack of shade and respite, especially in the main pedestrian thoroughfare from Narre Warren Railway Station up to Fountain Gate, was highlighted,” she said.
“This area is known to me, as I walked it during my campaign. However, I’m sure many similar areas throughout Casey are not comfortable walking in higher temperatures.
She said the findings of the cool walk could be incorporated into a broader conversation about factors stopping people from choosing active transport when it is uncomfortable.
