On 30 June the Melbourne Forum will host a free conference, Combating the urban heat island.

The flier for it says:

Urban development dramatically changes the landscape. Buildings, roads, and other infrastructure replace open land and vegetation. Surfaces that were once permeable and moist become impermeable and dry. These changes cause urban regions to become warmer than their rural surroundings, forming an “island” of higher temperatures in the landscape. The negative effects of the heat island phenomena include increased energy consumption, elevated emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, impaired water quality and compromised human health and comfort. This Melbourne Forum will discuss management of heat issues and ways to combat the heat island effect.

Topics and speakers include:

Using green infrastructure to mitigate excess urban heatSpeaker: Dr Jason Beringer, Associate Professor, School of Geography and Environmental Science,  Monash University

• Management of heat stress in urban environments Speaker: Dr Andrew Coutts, Research Fellow, Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University

Greening the West – creating a healthy urban habitat Speaker: Anne Barker, Managing Director, City West Water More information about the time, venue, speakers and papers is on the Forum’s web page: www.airah.org…