Urban heat
Cities create their own microclimates by influencing the surrounding atmosphere and interacting with climate processes. The most striking characteristic of an urban microclimate is the urban heat island (UHI) effect.
Air temperatures in Sydney are expected to increase in the future as a result of climate change and increasing urbanisation.
Office of Environment and Heritage has used the projections from NARCliM to provide updated information on the projected impacts of land use change on urban heat in the near future (2036).
Research results
Temperature changes in summer for each projected land use change
- Climate change is projected to increase temperatures in Sydney with maximum temperatures projected to increase by 0.7°C by 2030.
- Change in land-use has the potential to double the temperature increases caused by climate change in urban environments.
- Change in land-use from grasslands to medium density has the greatest increase in heat (0.5°C – 0.9°C).
- Increasing already urbanised areas from medium to high density decreases temperatures due to the building height and the influence of seas breeze in Sydney CBD.
Download information
This document provides a summary of the impacts that changed land-use and climate change have on temperatures in Sydney, from the Land-use Change Technical Report
PDF - 3.2 mb
The Impact of Land-use Change On Sydney’s Future Temperature details the methods and results of the urban heat impact research
PDF - 2.7 mb
This folder contains 40 maps of changes in annual and seasonal temperature for 8 periods in the day for 2036
ZIP - 32.3 mb
This folder contains 40 data files of changes in annual and seasonal temperature for 8 periods in the day for 2036
ZIP - 1.2 mb
