Posts tagged ‘Sports’
Making Sports Playing surfaces sustainable
Moreland Council has ordered a report in the first stage of development of a policy on open space surfaces, and sports fields in particular. The report needs to consider in particular “consideration to our stance on the Climate Emergency, Integrated Water Management, Urban Heat Island Effect and our goal of zero waste by 2030.
At last Council is moving to incorporate triple bottom line principles of environmental, social and financial decision making as mandated under the Local Government Act with regards to sports surfaces decision making.
Brunswick Voice has an article on the debate in Council chambers on 10 August: Climate debate heats up over synthetic turf.
(more…)August 29, 2022 at 7:38 pm morelandclimategroup Leave a comment
Moreland Olympian highlights climate action
Local Moreland Olympian Rhydian Cowley was interviewed by Ticker News recently. He highlighted the importance of athletes in their brief time in the public spotlight to advocate for climate action to keep our planet habitable in response to the climate crisis.
Rhydian Cowley is a champion Australian race walker. He competed in the 2016 Olympics for Australia and will be soon attending the Tokyo Olympics as part of the Australian Olympic Team. He will be participating in the 50km race walk event, one of the longest, most gruelling of Olympic events.
Rhydian is also a Sports Environmental Alliance ambassador which seeks to empower sport to do more in reducing sports carbon footprint, and is also a member of the Ecoathletes international organisation.
Rhydian Cowley articulates that much of the value of individual actions is the grassroots moment it builds for bigger climate action in government and organisational policy-making, and how it can scale when many people take action.
How will Synthetic turf impact urban heat island and microclimate around Hosken Reserve?
Synthetic turf surface temp heat profile compared to natural grass (Hong Kong) – Alm 2016
Adding a synthetic pitch to Hosken Reserve will increase the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE), reduce the Cool Park effect, and be felt mostly strongly by local residents. Artificial turf elevated temperatures will affect playability and heat stress to players, and not only in Summer but also for warm days in both Spring and Autumn when the temperature is elevated. Our Melbourne summers are getting longer.
For the most part it is local residents that would need to live with this permanent impact on increased microclimate temperatures over summer months and during warmer days in Spring and Autumn. Urban Heat island effect is more prominent during the night than during the day. This will likely increase evening energy use from air conditioners of local residents which will have a feedback of putting more heat back into the local environment.
Our temperature research at Hosken Reserve natural grass oval and Clifton Park synthetic pitch shows on a warm day (around 30C as per BOM records) the surface temperatures on the synthetic pitch are regularly 80-90 percent greater than natural grass, and may on occasion reach double the temperature of grass.
Moreland’s heat vulnerability is already at a high level, synthetic turf will contribute more heat when we need to be trying to cool our suburbs through green infrastructure. Moreland Council needs to find cooling solutions not exacerbate the problem with converting a much loved community shared grass oval to a fenced synthetic pitch.
Climate Action Moreland has had an interest for several years in urban heat island effect and how it is magnified by the rising temperatures of climate change and urban densification and development. This post draws upon past literature reviews and a recent science literature survey associated with artificial surfaces and the urban heat island effect that formed part of our submission on the Hosken Refresh consultation.
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Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change 