Glossary
A summary of definitions and terms used in the assessment, resources and credit categories. This includes technical and scientific language used to describe urban heat and urban development, plus terms used in current research and thinking on urban heat management.
| Reference | Definition | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptation | Projects and programs designed to reduce risk and help residents and organisations better cope with the impacts of heat. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Albedo | Albedo is the fraction of solar radiation reflected from a materials’ surface. | Coakley, J A. REFLECTANCE AND ALBEDO. [book auth.] J.R Holton. Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences. s.l.: Academic Press, 2003. |
| Awareness | Involves assessing the physical conditions in the area, and the vulnerability of residents and urban infrastructure to heat. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Blue space | Blue space in the urban planning context comprises all the areas that consist of surface waterbodies or watercourses such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams. | X |
| Green space | Urban green space refers to open-space areas such as parks, lawns, community gardens and other vegetated areas. | X |
| Urban Heat Island effect | The Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) is a local climate change phenomenon whereby urban areas present higher air temperatures than their rural proximities. The difference is often 3-4°C, but higher peak differences can reach 10 °C. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Heatwave | A heatwave occurs when the maximum and the minimum temperatures are unusually hot over a three-day period at a location. This is considered in relation to the local climate and past weather at the location. | Bureau of Meteorology. Understanding heatwaves. Bureau of Meteorology, 2021. [Online] http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/heatwave/knowledge-centre/understanding.shtml |
| Hot days | Defined by the Climate Council as days between 30°C and 35°C. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Very hot days | Defined by the Climate Council as days between 35°C and 40°C. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Extremely hot days | Defined by the Climate Council as temperatures 40°C and over. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| City resilience | City resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. | Resilient Sydney. A strategy for city resilience 2018, 2018. |
| Cool refuge | Shaded outdoor spaces and cooled indoor spaces. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Urban heat mitigation | Projects and interventions that seek to reduce the root cause of urban heat (and therefore the temperature) through either an increase in green canopy, use of more building and paving reflective materials, use of irrigation and water features. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Climate hazard | Climatic hazards are climate-related events or phenomena that may pose risks to human settlements or the environment. | Hobbs, J. E. Climatic hazards. In: Climatology, Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Boston, MA: Springer, 1987 |
| Deep soil | Deep soil is a landscaped area connected horizontally to the soil system and local ground water system beyond and is unimpeded by any building or structure above or below ground with the exception of minor structures. | NSW DPIE Urban Tree Canopy Targets & Development Controls Report. (2021) [Online]. https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-10/urban-tree-canopy-targets-and-development-controls-report.pdf |
| Reduce | Involves reducing average ambient temperatures in the built environment as much as possible. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Response | There will still be residual heat-related risk in extreme events, and therefore we also need emergency preparedness and response measures, particularly to help the most vulnerable people in the community. | WSROC. Turn Down The Heat - Strategy and Action Plan. s.l.: WSROC, 2018. |
| Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) | Solar reflectance Index (SRI) is a composite measure that accounts for a surface’s solar reflectance and emittance. To calculate the SRI, the material or product’s emittance values and total solar reflectance must be known. | Asdrubali, F and Desideri, U. Handbook of Energy Efficiency in Buildings. s.l.: Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 295-439, 2019. |
| Street canyon | A street canyon is a place where the street is flanked by built elements, creating a canyon-like environment that can funnel wind. | X |