{"id":490112,"date":"2026-06-22T16:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/490112\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:16:08","slug":"how-cities-are-fighting-back-against-the-heat-island-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/490112\/","title":{"rendered":"How cities are fighting back against the &#8216;heat island effect&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But be it greenery, architecture or reflective surfaces, these changes come at a cost, one many of the world&#8217;s most heat-exposed countries simply can&#8217;t afford, says Santamouris.<\/p>\n<p>The future of fighting heat<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Heat is ultimately a personal problem. It affects you differently depending on your age, where you live, what preexisting conditions you may have, and how you go about your day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The next wave of heat mitigation may depend less on fixing a city or planting trees, and more on providing people with their own personalized warnings and forecasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re far off from the day when your Google Maps actually has a shade layer,\u201d says Turner, that conjures walking routes away from the sun, adjusting for the time of day. Her own team has already\u00a0<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.ucla.edu\/releases\/national-shade-map-ucla-american-forests-combat-urban-heat\" dir=\"ltr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mapped<\/a>\u00a0shade across 360 U.S. cities and towns. She also envisions a personalized weather app that swaps blanket heat alerts for more customized warnings based on your demographic and health risks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Innovation in materials is also moving forward. Santamouris describes\u00a0cutting-edge cooling surfaces still in the experimental phase that not only reflect sunlight but absorb water overnight and then evaporate it during the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But be it greenery, architecture or reflective surfaces, these changes come at a cost, one many of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,166981,245806,111,139,69,147,245805,245803,245804],"class_list":["post-490112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-heat-island-effect","tag-heat-island-solutions","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-solutions-to-heat-islands","tag-urban-heat-island","tag-urban-heat-island-effect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}