Brisbane Green Corridors as Heatwave Harm Mitigation

Trees has cooling properties by proving not only shades but also the evapotranspiration process that lower the temperature in the surrounding areas. Other literature also highlights other benefit of trees such as improving mental health and increased feeling of safety and comfort for urban dwellers. A study in three Brisbane outer suburbs suggest that investing in trees as shading along the street corridors has positive correlation to the reduction of number of casualties during heat waves. 

This study suggests that in Brisbane, preventing a 2 ^oC increase of temperature could save 381 temperature-related years of life lost annually. Brisbane’s suburbs have on average 90 trees per kilometres of street length, which is higher that the average of other global cities such as Buenos Aires, Paris and Washington D.C. However, the tree coverage is not equally distributed, with lower income suburbs have fewer trees compare to the middle-income and higher-income suburbs. This finding should direct the city council attention to prioritise tree planning along street corridors in lower-income areas to provide a more equitable environmental protection against temperature-related disaster. 

Reference:

Patton, S., & Pojani, D. (2022). Some like it hot? Unequal provision of tree shading in Australian subtropical suburbs. Australian Planner, 58(1-2), 1-10.

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