Brisbane, the River City, is renowned for its subtropical climate, offering residents and visitors an abundance of sunshine year-round. While many colder cities envy Brisbane’s warm weather, the intense heat and sun exposure during the summer months present a unique challenge. The scorching sun can make walking around the city uncomfortable and even hazardous, deterring people from embracing active transportation and outdoor activities.
As urban development continues to reshape Brisbane, there’s a growing need to address the city’s sun-soaked streets. By implementing strategic greening initiatives and innovative cooling solutions, Brisbane can enhance walkability, promote sustainability, and improve the overall quality of urban life.
The Sun Challenge: Too Much of a Good Thing
Unlike cities that grapple with cold and overcast conditions, Brisbane often faces the opposite issue—excessive sun exposure. During peak summer, temperatures can soar, and the relentless sunlight turns sidewalks and public spaces into heat islands. This not only affects comfort but also poses health risks such as heatstroke and skin cancer.
The urban heat island effect, where built-up areas experience higher temperatures than outlying areas, exacerbates the problem. Concrete and asphalt absorb and radiate heat, making city centers particularly sweltering. To combat this, Brisbane needs to rethink its urban design with a focus on cooling and shading.
Embracing Urban Forestry: More Trees for Shade
One of the most effective ways to cool urban environments is through the strategic planting of trees. Trees provide natural shade, reduce surface and air temperatures, and improve air quality. They also enhance the aesthetic appeal of streetscapes, contributing to mental well-being and property values.
The Brisbane City Council’s “Buildings that Breathe” guidelines encourage greener, more sustainable developments by steering design towards environmentally-conscious features. These include natural ventilation, extensive green landscaping throughout developments, and the integration of activated, landscaped rooftops with recreational amenities.
However, the council cannot rely solely on developers to introduce green buildings. Proactive measures are needed to retrofit many of Brisbane’s bare and hot streets and council needs to pull its weight to make them more walkable during the intense summer heat which is only going to get worse with climate change.
Expanding Green Canopies in Suburbs and the Inner City
Brisbane can significantly benefit from increasing tree coverage along sidewalks in both suburban neighborhoods and the inner city. This involves:
- Selecting Appropriate Tree Species: Choosing native, drought-resistant trees that offer extensive canopies without interfering with infrastructure.
- Implementing Green Corridors: Creating continuous stretches of greenery that connect parks, schools, and commercial areas, encouraging walking and cycling.
- Community Engagement: Involving residents in tree-planting initiatives for local streets fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility towards urban greenery.
By prioritising urban forestry, Brisbane can create cooler, more inviting streets that encourage people to spend time outdoors.
Innovative Cooling Solutions: Water-Vapour Cooling Systems
Taking a cue from Singapore, a city known for its innovative approaches to urban heat, Brisbane could introduce water vapour cooling systems in high-traffic public areas which turn on when the temperature hits a certain level. These systems release fine water mist that evaporates quickly, reducing ambient temperatures without leaving surfaces wet.
Benefits of Misters
- Temperature Reduction: Lowers surrounding temperatures by several degrees, making outdoor areas more comfortable.
- Energy Efficiency: Consumes less energy compared to traditional air conditioning.
- Enhances Public Spaces: Adds a visually appealing element that can attract visitors and enhance the urban experience.
Implementing misters at bus stops, pedestrian malls, and event spaces can provide immediate relief during heatwaves.
Shading Infrastructure: Covering Bridges and Public Walkways
Bridges are essential connectors in Brisbane, but they can be unforgiving under the harsh sun. Installing shade structures on bridges like the Victoria Bridge can transform these pathways into more user-friendly spaces.
The Case for Shaded Bridges
- Encourages Active Transport: Makes walking and cycling more attractive options, reducing reliance on cars.
- Aesthetic Appeal: Architecturally designed shade structures can become iconic features of the cityscape.
- Safety and Comfort: Protects pedestrians from UV radiation, heat exhaustion and rain.
Council did have plans to erect the much needed shade structures wanted by many for the Victoria Bridge however has since postponed the idea due to budget cuts.
The bridge shade plans features heavily in Brisbane City Council’s own Walkable Brisbane Draft Strategy and the U-turn has been criticised by many in the community.
Rethinking Awnings: Ban on Glass Awnings
Awnings are commonplace in Brisbane’s commercial areas, providing shelter from rain and sun. However, glass awnings, while modern and sleek, offer minimal protection from sunlight due to their transparency and in some cases amplify the suns intensity with reflectivity.
The Need for Functional Awnings
- Effective Sun Protection: Opaque materials like canvas or metal better block harmful UV rays.
- Heat Reduction: Solid awnings prevent sunlight from heating sidewalks and storefronts.
- Energy Efficiency: Reduces cooling costs for adjacent buildings by limiting solar heat gain.
By regulating the materials used for awnings, Brisbane can ensure that these structures serve their intended purpose of shading and cooling.
Addressing Brisbane’s sun challenge requires a multifaceted approach that combines urban greening, innovative technologies, and thoughtful infrastructure design. Collaboration between the city council, urban planners, architects, businesses, and the community is essential.
Key Actions for Implementation
- Policy Development: Establish guidelines and incentives for incorporating shade and cooling elements in new developments and renovations.
- Investment in Green Infrastructure: Allocate funding for tree planting, maintenance, and the development of green corridors.
- Public Awareness Campaigns: Educate the community about the benefits of urban greening and how they can contribute.
Why should it be unbearable to walk around Brisbane in summer? we need better policy that follows good examples from places across the globe.
Yes! Good article. I don’t understand why any of the 4 pedestrian & cyclist only bridges throughout the city don’t have deep planters for trees and greenery. It’s a green city, why doesn’t this extend to the bridges? Especially the ones prioritised for pedestrians. All of these bridges feature partial shade awnings only. It makes them feel more ‘utilitarian extensions of the concrete jungle’ rather than ‘a nice walkway continuation of the surrounding parks and gardens.’
Reading reddit articles about the recently opened Kangaroo Point bridge give similar impressions: the public think the louvres provide half-arsed shading for foot traffic, and offer bugger-all shading for cyclists. Additional awnings (or arbours like the one at Southbank) shouldn’t be that expensive to retro-fit. Perhaps install these over time if costs/ budgets are an issue?
Sadly, it’s not really feasible to retro-fit existing bridges for deep planters, so we’ll never see tree shading. I’d like to see this implemented on the Toowong-West End bridge, as a way to make it standalone and unique. Combine that with a cafe/ restaurant widening at the centre of bridge span to provide a greenery viewing platform back towards the city.
originally from Melbourne, which has excellent foliage cover making walking in intense summer sun not a problem.
biggest issue we have faced in Brisbane is the absolute lack of shade, which continues to baffle me.
the city and surrounds are unwalkable from 10am onwards.
thank goodness they are trying to address this.
Most SEQ Councils are purely focused on moving cars as fast as possible and not the amenity of the streets, pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motor vehicle users. They are out of touch with good planning and the stats show we doing a really bad job of it.
Fair Dinkum, this comes up at least once a year. Yet , the BCC and state government do the bare minimum to improve shade by planting trees along major transport corridors and constructing shade structures at regular intervals to rest under as pedestrians walk along footpaths. All commercial buildings should have awnings over footpaths.
Unfortunately, our governments only want to smash another tolled road tunnel through the northern suburbs.
Dear Folks
I love all these initiatives.
Hopefully one day we will get a council or state government that shares your visions.
on Sundays my husband and I go for drives to Mount Mee or Mt Glorious and to Somnerset Dam. it’s unbelievable as you drive from Fernvale or the dam up the back of the Ranges to Mount Glorious as to how the temperature drops a few degrees as you turn the car around the corner at Wivenho Dam lookout.
seriously the planting of trees anywhere, any place is a real no brainer.
Glass awnings, black roofs, black anything makes things hot.
You even say that the reflection of glass heats up the footpath but it also heats up earth along with solar panels that reflect light back into the stratosphere therefore heating up the planet and the Elon Musk Satellites that are reflecting light also help to heat up earth along with his cars that are not sustainable as everything in them comes from unsustainable mines.
we think that we are progressing but shamefully we are not unless we take initiatives like yours seriously
Great ideas, and maybe Olympics might spur some action. Like the stadiums we will need to move quickly.
I would also include green walls and roofs. surely BCC can research appropriate species for this and add this to new building regulations.
One other aspect….personal safety v greening trees. more roadside trees more traffic accidents, and also, very unfortunately, more personal attacks. I don’t know the answer, but there is a trade-off here we will all need to accept.
Brisbane has 50 cent public transport fares. It might not be suitable for everyone, but start with the schools, the 3pm Mun run is unconstrained , ugly really. Get kids used to buses and trains.
Anne, it’s about time ,I have been saying this for years, please do same on gold coast, very much needed, we are all concrete, I walk and cycle everyday and so much cooler under a tree ,not a palm tree, it will help to save the planet, , thank you ,don’t forget the gold coast
Greener…yep, you need more carbon dioxide in the air
Love the idea of
Investment in Green Infrastructure: Allocate funding for tree planting, maintenance, and the development of green corridors.
I thought that most council planning requirements did call for set-backs and public areas that can be used for green spaces but often it seems that the expected allocation for public/green space does not always eventuate and there ends up being commercial ventures filling up setbacks with coffee carts and tables and chairs and pop up shops cluttering up public spaces.
Is there a way to ensure that both council and developers can be called to task if expectations agreed in local planning instruments are not followed?
Fantastic that Brisbane Times is writing an article about this. It is all so logical and obvious…. But it needs community led action to make Brisbane City Council change it’s priorities. For instance, densification is necessary, the Council’s Buildings that Breathe policy is wonderful but the Council has to make pedestrian comfort and safety a priority. Currently it is focused on the car. Driveway widths are getting wider and more frequent, limiting the potential for on street greenery and making it a minefield for young families or the elderly to walk safely. Setbacks are creeping closer and closer to the boundaries, and the deep planting requirement is generally kept to the absolute bare minimum to maximise carparking layouts. Above ground carparking podiums dressed in green shrubbery (that requires the body corporate to keep watering it to stay alive, which isn’t mandatory) have prioritized carparking costs above human safety – as apartments start 3- 5 levels above the ground, there are no longer people living close to the street to see or hear unsafe behaviours.
Also, in Brisbane, it takes 9-10 years for a tree to reach a height and width to shade our pathways. Ironically, BCC has no budget in 2025 to plant trees. Luckily, each ward can use their budget for this purpose if you ask them to. And one last comment – BCC has a budget of $24M annually to mow grass. Imagine if we all started to plant our verges to remove the grass. Maybe they’d have money for trees!