Cities need wind corridors
On Tuesday, temperatures in Taipei reached 38.9°C, the highest ever recorded in the city in July. According to news reports, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung are to continue to heat up. Should this be quietly accepted, or can anything be done?
Cities have their own microclimates, and they are often warmer than the surrounding areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect.
Two causes of this are the many tall buildings that block wind from circulating and urban air pollution, which retains high temperatures.
In the daytime, buildings absorb heat, and without the evening breeze helping to dissipate that heat, temperatures will be high the next morning and air conditioners will be running at full blast early in the day, creating a vicious cycle.
Wind is a natural urban air-conditioner. When wind speeds increase by 0.5m per second, night temperatures fall by 1°C, and peak energy consumption can drop by 6 percent.
Freiburg in southern Germany is located in the Rhine Valley with the Black Forest to the east. In the summer, the evening breeze blows through the city, dissipating the day’s heat.
Tokyo, Beijing and many other cities have realized the importance of wind corridors and are now implementing wind corridor plans. We can no longer only rely on local governments taking action and legislation keeping up with climate change: Urban planners must become proactive and create wind corridors in cramped cities to dissipate heat and cool down our overheated cities. At the very least, we must stop building huge buildings that block the wind.
It might be late in the day, but action is nevertheless needed. If the wind can move unhindered, air-conditioner use will go down, electricity bills will drop and our overheated cities will cool down.
Wei Shih-chang
Taipei
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