{"id":10504,"date":"2020-04-28T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T22:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.australiascience.tv\/?p=10504"},"modified":"2021-10-01T15:31:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T06:01:48","slug":"backyard-helps-reduce-global-warming","status":"publish","type":[8014],"link":"https:\/\/education.australiascience.tv\/backyard-helps-reduce-global-warming\/","title":{"rendered":"Your backyard could help reduce global warming"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”5\/6″][vc_separator color=”white”][vc_column_text]A study finds gardens cool urban temperatures by six degrees, meaning your backyard can help reduce global warming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inspire students to help slow global warming from home with this article suitable for Biological, Earth and Space and Physical science students in year 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.<\/p>\n

Word Count \/ Video Length: 446 \/ 1:34 mins[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n

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Home gardens can play a vital role in keeping city temperatures down. Credit: Rosemary Calvert\/Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Australian researchers found during an extreme<\/strong> heatwave that backyard gardens lowered land surface temperatures by five to six degrees Celsius more than similar non-vegetated areas.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Hot summers can cause city temperatures to soar one to three degrees higher than surrounding areas, creating \u201curban heat islands<\/a>\u201d due to excess concrete, people, air conditioning, machinery and the resulting local climate.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Not only can this be uncomfortable, and even unlivable, it can also place a significant burden on\u00a0public health<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions are proposed as cost-effective, sustainable approaches to mitigating the impacts of climate change.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cUrban trees in particular are an effective tool for reducing land surface and air temperatures for entire suburbs, and even cities,\u201d says researcher Alessandro Ossola from Macquarie University, Australia.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cBut as yet we don\u2019t know much about their localised effects, particularly in the places where cooling is most important \u2013 our residential neighbourhoods \u2013 and when needed the most \u2013 during extreme heatwave events.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]To investigate this, Ossola and colleagues from the university\u2019s collaborative\u00a0Smart Green Cities<\/a> hub analysed thermal mapping data collected from an aircraft in summer 2017 at the peak of a three-day-long 40-degree heatwave in Adelaide.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The results,\u00a0published\u00a0<\/a>in an online report, were surprisingly positive.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n
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Daytime thermal imaging of land surface temperature in Walkley Heights, Adelaide, taken from an aircraft at the peak of a three-day 40\u00b0C heatwave. The area on the right is cooler (blue shades) because of greater vegetation cover. In the hotter area on the left (red shades) a residential development built in 2003 has smaller yards with less tree cover. Credit: ADAPT WEST AND AIRBORNE RESEARCH AUSTRALIA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cWe found that the humble home garden is more than pulling its weight when it comes down to urban cooling,\u201d says Ossola. \u201cAlthough they only cover about 20% of urban land, domestic yards account for more than 40% of tree cover and 30% of herbaceous cover, in the form of grass.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The tree canopy cover is notably more than typical parks or other urban green areas which tend to have more grass, and the cooler temperatures were particularly pronounced in the hottest suburbs that don\u2019t enjoy cooling sea breezes.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The researchers estimate that increasing green foliage in residential gardens could reduce local heat by several degrees Celsius.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]On the other hand, they calculated that removing existing vegetation through urbanisation, infill and densification could increase local land surface temperatures by three to four degrees, particularly during the day and for the most vulnerable communities.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The considerable, localised cooling benefits of backyard gardens have important implications for policy, which needs to account for extreme temperatures in urban planning, Ossola says.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cOur results clearly indicate that encouraging, protecting and expanding urban greening on private land is a simple, effective means of mitigating the negative effects of climate change on cities and people.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cHowever this is a strategy that needs to begin now: urban forests don\u2019t grow quickly, and we need to be encouraging low-water use herbaceous cover as a stopgap until a large array of shade trees can take over the job of green cooling.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This article is republished from Cosmos<\/a>.<\/strong> Read the original article here<\/a>.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text njt-role=”not-logged-in” css=”.vc_custom_1568767632676{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

Login or Sign up for FREE<\/strong> to download a copy of the full teacher resource<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text njt-role=”not-logged-in”]\n

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