About the Cool Suburbs Assessment

Assessment Overview

Find out more about the Cool Suburbs Assessment and the science and research the ratings are based on.

The Cool Suburbs Assessment: connecting science and practice

Urban design and development has an important role to play in enabling heat resilience for our communities and landscapes. A wide range of research is available to inform the management of heat through design, including:

• How to design for the mitigation of urban heat islands; Coutts et al., (33); Osmond & Sharifi, (46); Pfautsch & Rouillard (16); Santamouris, (50); Sydney Water & UNSW (6); Yang, Wang & Kaloush, (69).
• How to support flora and greening to survive and thrive in urban environments; (70)
• The role of the built environment in providing human safety in extreme heat events; (69)
• Alternative and emerging energy technologies; (74)

Much of this valuable knowledge has yet to be made accessible in a way that supports real-world decision making. The Cool Suburbs Assessment has been designed to bridge this gap between research and practice.

Assessment objectives

• It is a voluntary, industry-based performance tool to assess place-based urban heat resilience and guide practitioners in making evidence-based planning and development decisions across all development scales and project types.
• The assessment is designed for both developers and government, with the goal of supporting improved heat outcomes to ensure people can thrive in a warming environment and survive in extreme events.
• Drawing on a synthesis of urban heat science and practices, it offers a series of simple steps users can follow to arrive at a heat resilience rating for their development plan.
• Resources and outcomes from the assessment can also help users identify heat resilience measures suited to their project and location at an early stage in planning and design.
• It can also support governments and developers in considering measures they can use for improving urban heat resilience for existing, transforming, and new suburbs.

Assessment outcome

Projects receive a Cool Suburbs Star Rating, ranging from one to five stars. This rating reflects the extent to which a project meets the relevant criteria. A five-star rating shows that a project meets all relevant credits, while a one-star rating is given to project meeting mandatory credits only.

Expanding the assessment to locations across NSW

The original Cool Suburbs Assessment was developed for Western Sydney only. To expand the assessment for use across all of NSW, it needed to consider all relevant climate zones as defined by the Australian Building Code Board (ABCB). Climate Zones 1 and 3 from the ABCB classification are not found in NSW and excluded from this second version of the Cool Suburbs Assessment.

The NSW climate zones included are:

• Climate Zone 2; 'Hot Humid' summer conditions, covering the North Coast of NSW
• Climate Zone 4; 'Hot Dry' summer conditions, covering the land area west of the Great Dividing Range; and
• Climate Zones 5, 6, 7 and 8 combined; 'Warm / Hot Temperate & Alpine' summer conditions and cover the land area east of and including the Great Dividing Range with the exception of the North Coast of NSW.

Informed by expert analysis

Urban and extreme heat science is an evolving field with a rapidly expanding body of scientific evidence to guide policy and strategic action on urban heat resilience.

To support the development of the CST, an expert panel of leading urban heat scientists carried out a robust science translation review to arrive at a complete set of recommendations for updating the assessment.

This broader science-based best practice framework was chosen over simulation modelling. This is because the assessment aims to guide decision-making from the initial planning stages, rather than evaluating a final design. Simulation modelling is unsuitable for most projects as it is unlikely to inform decision-making throughout the project lifecycle.

The review covered a number of tasks including:

• Reviewing the most effective urban heat resilience measures.
• Looking at relevant climate zones to make the tool applicable across NSW.
• Adapting credits in the context of urban development in NSW.

Find out more: refer to the Resources section for more detail on the science translation review process.

Heat resilience considerations

The expert panel identified and reviewed a number of headline heat resilience considerations listed below. Refer to page x in the Science Rationale Document in the Resources section for a detailed description for each consideration:

• Extreme heat conditions (heat waves)
• Climate change
• Ventilation
• Shade
• Perviousness
• Water supply security
• Energy supply security
• Urban heat metrics to measure impact

The Cool Suburbs Assessment team engaged with government and industry stakeholders to help translate findings into an easy-to-use rating tool for a place (building, street, precinct, or suburb).

Where to find out more

In developing the Cool Suburbs Assessment, our team created a detailed science rationale document. This resource provides a summary of the key concepts that have been considered in developing the assessment and describes how the assessment structure integrates key influences and best-practice on urban heat.