Reports

	50°C: Climate, Heat and Resilience: Microclimate Investigation By Pfautsch, S., A. Wujeska-Klause, J.R. Walters. 2025 This research report describes microclimate analyses for 9 public schools in Western Sydney and also around the construction site of the Powerhouse at the Parramatta River. The data are used to present novel temperature maps that inform heat management at schools, focussing on interventions for coolth and safe outdoor play. The report is a major contribution to a larger learning program that combined Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricular activities with environmental monitoring and urban design. The program was delivered by the Lang Walker Family Academy of the Powerhouse Parramatta, Australia.
	Microclimates of Brookvale – taking the pulse of the Northern Beaches industrial heartland By Pfautsch, S., A. Wujeska-Klause, J.R. Walters. 2025. The suburb of Brookvale in Sydney’s east is the industrial centre of the Northern Beaches Local Government Area (LGA). The area is gaining increased recognition for its growing micro-brewery industry, emerging arts scene, and innovative small businesses. Also, the local population is growing rapidly. The proximity of Brookvale to the Pacific Ocean means that summer temperatures are relatively mild compared to those experienced further west in the Sydney Basin. However, summer air temperatures can rise above 40°C, which presents health risks for local communities. Low canopy cover across the industrial part of Brookvale means little shade and transpiration cooling is provided when it is needed the most.
	Mapping summer microclimates across the City of Sydney By Pfautsch, S., A. Wujeska-Klause, J.R. Walters. 2024. The City of Sydney is a world-class tourism destination and economic powerhouse in the southern hemisphere. The city is exposed to the impacts of climate change, including increasingly hot summer air temperatures. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its location in the Sydney Harbour provides generally more benign summer temperatures compared to those experienced further west in the Sydney Basin. Yet, air temperatures during extreme heat events are regularly above 40°C and present health risks for local populations. Densification through development and associated loss of open, vegetated spaces amplify summer heat further and strategies are needed to prevent the city from overheating. But where to start?
	Benchmarking Summer Heat across Blacktown’s diverse urban landscapes. By Pfautsch, S., A. Wujeska-Klause, A. Madden, J.R. Walters This report presents findings from a research project investigating microclimatic variation across Blacktown City, NSW, Australia, during the summer of 2023/24. The motivation for this research was to create an evidence base of local summer temperatures across the diverse landscapes and suburbs of Blacktown City.
	Next generation cool-green car park prototype for urban heat resilience By Pfautsch, S., A. Wujeska-Klause, J.R. Walters, P. Shrestha, P. Bottero, N. Gray. 2025. In summer, unshaded car parks are local heat sinks. Their dark asphalt surface can reach temperatures greater than 70°C and emit sensible heat that intensifies thermal discomfort of people using them. Cars with combustion engines will produce high exhaust emissions when started after parking in unshaded car parks and radiant heat from unshaded asphalt warms the air. In the era of global warming and urban overheating, reducing heat in car parks is an effective strategy to increase resilience against rising summer temperatures.
	Urban cooling - a collective ‘must do’ in heating cities By Sebastian Pfaustch Published in Facility Perspective – February 2025 Here's the latest call on industry to create/retrofit and operate buildings to help cooling, not warming our cities. The article was recently published in Facility Perspectives (Vol. 18(4)). The quick, easy read contains practical ideas, technologies and applications that can help reduce emissions from cooling, warming and ventilating buildings.
	Driving change by supporting electric vehicle ready apartments By T Longden, G Gatarin, A Hellany, A Leditschke, D Kuch, G Morrison & N Morrison This Policy Insights Paper highlights key strategies to expand electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in apartment buildings across NSW. While EV adoption has surged in suburban homes, the report highlights unique challenges for apartment residents and offers practical solutions to improve accessibility in high-density housing.
	International Best Practice in Infrastructure Funding: Lessons for Australia's Outer Metropolitan Growth Areas By N Morrison, G Gatarin, & M Strickling This report examines Australia’s infrastructure funding system and draws lessons from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, the US, and Canada to propose actionable recommendations. It advocates for long-term, stable funding frameworks that go beyond political cycles, embedding sustainability into whole-of-life infrastructure planning and delivery. Emphasising a deep collaboration across government and local stakeholders, it calls for integrated, place-based funding models that value both physical and social infrastructure. Robust evaluation and accountability are essential for continuous improvement and fostering community trust. Implementing these reforms will require legislative changes, bipartisan support, and a willingness to rethink entrenched practices.
	Suburban Microclimate and how to improve it By Pfautsch, S., Rouillard, S., & Wujeska-Klause, A. This report focuses on heat-responsive urban design in western Sydney's subtropical climate, using empirical temperature measurements to assess how materials and shade influence suburban microclimates. While providing shade is identified as the most effective cooling method, the report also evaluates the thermal performance of various construction and landscaping materials to offer practical guidance for building cooler suburbs. The resulting 30 recommendations serve as a blueprint for positive change, providing valuable information for developers, architects, and homeowners to implement strategic cooling actions across all scales, from landscapes to individual gardens.
	Places to Swim Perspectives Report By Morrison N, Wright I, and Littman A People love to recreate around, on and in the water. As part of the Department of Planning and Open Spaces Program, Places to Swim provides an opportunity to improve access to natural waterways for recreation across NSW. This report investigates the issues, barriers and benefits associated with opening waterways for recreation. NSW is enriched with a range of beautiful and healthy waterways providing opportunities for people to swim and recreate safely, create places that people can visit, and help build better communities. A key attribute for all swimming sites is ensuring they are safe to use. Recreation involving waterways inherently involves risks, including exposure to waterborne contaminants and the risk of injury and drowning. As new swimming sites are opened the risks need to be identified, monitored, and managed.
	Synthetic Turf In Public Places By Sebastian Pfautsch and Agnieszka Wujeska-Klause Urban growth and densification can lead to increasing pressure on public recreational facilities like parks and sport fields. Traditionally, many of these public recreational facilities, especially those that support ball games, would be surfaced with natural turf. The confluence of inappropriate design, construction, and maintenance practices with the added pressure of increased use hours can lead to damage of turf surfaces and reductions in time such facilities are available for the public to use. In response to this situation, public and private organisations opt to install synthetic turf surfaces with the goal to extend use hours and provide appropriate facilities to support a more active lifestyle of local communities and sport clubs.
	Despicable Urban Places: Hot Car Parks By Sebastian Pfautsch, Agnieszka Wujeska-Klause, Awais Piracha, Riccardo Paolini, Ryan van den Nouwelant, Nicky Morrison Cities are warmer than surrounding non-urban areas. Climate models predict that metropolitan centres will become even warmer due to the dual impacts of global warming and densification. However, the outer fringe zones of metropolitan centres will also become warmer as a consequence of urban expansion that requires replacing green and open spaces like pastures or bushland with grey infrastructure such as roads and buildings.
	Wicked Urban Challenges in Western Sydney: Researches Respond By Nicky Morrison, Cecelia Cmielewski, Alex O'Mara, Phillip O'Neil, Sebastian Pfautsch, Emma Power The purpose of this publication is to provide critical insights and perspectives around how to tackle four of Western Sydney’s wicked urban challenges, and ensure our region is prepared for the future, namely: job/housing imbalances and inadequate infrastructure investment; declining housing affordability; cultural infrastructure disparities; extreme urban heat. Our aim is that this publication continues the debate generated in the online forum, ‘Wicked urban challenges in Western Sydney: researchers respond’, held in October 2021.
	Increasing Resilience to Climate Change (IRCC) Project: Review of Local Council Strategies for Climate, Health and Wellbeing in the Western Sydney Region By Nicky Morrison, Erica McIntyre, N. Reynolds, R. Al Qayem, P. Harris This Local Government NSW funded project focusses on identifying how local councils in the Western Parkland City have addressed climate risk and resilience within their policies and plans, and uncovering the barriers and enablers of planning, implementing, and evaluating climate risk and resilience strategies within the Western Parkland City. The intent of this research is to inform the development of guidance and tools to assist the development and implementation of strategies and action plans to reduce the impact of climate on health and wellbeing across the Western Parkland City. The project used the wide local council networks of the WSHA to ascertain if policy action areas identified in the Framework for a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Wellbeing (Climate and Health Alliance, 2017) could be translated into local council and health service strategies and action plans across the Western Parkland City region.
	Making Healthy Places: NSW Built Environment Practitioners' Perspectives on Place-making Opportunities that Help Deliver Health and Wellbeing Outcomes By Morrison, N., Barns, S., Dunshea, A., Paine, G., Pry, J., Sajan, J., … Nouwelant, R. V. D The built environment can positively impact the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Where you live shapes how easy it is to buy healthy food, use active transport, and make social connections. The evidence is clear. But how do we go about creating places that help deliver positive health and wellbeing outcomes for all? This project looks at such convergences and divergences within a particularly instrumental environment – the barriers and opportunities that present to built environment practitioners when making healthy places.

Publications