Abstract
The impacts of climate change in urban environments affect a large part of the population that today lives mainly in cities. The urban heat island, i.e. an urban area with a higher temperature than its rural surroundings, is becoming a worsening problem for many urban areas. Particularly in the summer season, high temperatures cause heat stress and the associated negative impacts on the health of residents as well as their productivity. Given climate change projections, we can expect temperature extremes, such as heat waves, to become both more intense and more frequent, hence the projected impacts on the population may be more severe. However, these impacts will not be evenly distributed and reflect the different vulnerabilities of different population groups.
Adaptation to climate change in urban environments is based on the availability of ecosystem services in the form of nature-based adaptations, in addition to social vulnerability, population behaviour and available technologies. The urban landscape cover is characterised by a high proportion of impervious surfaces that store and emit heat and only small fractions of vegetation, which in turn can mitigate heat stress and provide a range of other benefits. However, vegetation is not evenly distributed in the urban environment. Thus, the spatial arrangement of the city can lead to inequalities in the provision and availability of ecosystem benefits such as cooling, as well as inequalities in the impacts of high heat stress. This leads to questions such as: Who are the beneficiaries of urban ecosystem benefits? Who are those who benefit from the benefits of ecosystem services?
The presentation will present an analysis of the benefits of nature cooling using a case study in Prague. The cooling analysis is performed using the Urban InVEST model by modelling temperature extremes in the city. The model results are further categorized as heat stress levels according to the sensible temperature, i.e. the perceived and felt temperature in the city. Exposure to heat stress is linked to socio-economic population data in an analysis of the availability of areas that provide cooling. The outputs answer the above questions and thus simultaneously identify areas where benefits, and therefore adaptation measures to climate change, are most needed. The paper will also discuss the pathway to a more equitable distribution of ecosystem benefits in the context of climate change and urban planning. The outputs presented during the paper have the potential to contribute to better informed decision making in urban planning and policy making for a future sustainable and equitable city.