Keyword Urban heat island

Many Canadians welcome the arrival of hot summer days as respite from our long, cold winters. Understandably, we tend to think of more summer heat as a good thing. But too much heat can be dangerous.

Heat waves in cities are expected to be more frequent and intense under climate change. The City of Montreal is tackling urban heat islands head-on through city greening initiatives, in collaboration with Ouranos, a climate change research consortium.

In her work as Winnipeg’s City Forester, Martha Barwinsky talks to a lot of people about trees. “People love trees,” she laughs, saying that many people tell her “cool stories about trees: they remember this tree, and they climbed that tree, or their grandfather planted a tree and now they go and pick apples from it.”

The climate determines almost everything about how we design, build, and live in our cities. The streets and sidewalks, businesses and homes, parking lots and public transit that we use every day have been created to suit our climate. Now, with our climate changing, we need to re-think important aspects of how we live our urban lives.

“I don’t think any of us ever thought we’d use the words ‘heat wave’ and ‘Vancouver’ in the same sentence”, says Vancouver city counselor Andrea Reimer, “but now it’s something we not only have to expect but that we’re experiencing right now.”

Near the end of the century, the City of Toronto could experience nearly two months of +30 °C days a year, according to climate projections. To address the growing risk of future heat waves, local faith leaders have created a network of cooling centres in churches, mosques, temples and synagogues, and are mobilizing their congregations to provide support for susceptible populations. For City Counsellor Gord Perks, this example of grassroots community resilience makes him hopeful about the future.

Today, over 80% of Canada’s population lives in cities. We know that cities will soon face increased climate change impacts, such as more frequent and intense extreme weather events.  The research series Building a Climate-Resilient City by the Prairie Climate Centre outlines policy steps that cities can take to engage in climate risk management in a range of areas, including transportation, agriculture, electricity infrastructure, disaster preparedness and emergency management.