BAMOS
Mar 2019
Map of projected population growth (2036) and areas of planned urban development for Sydney.
Data will be available freely online via a dedicated website for
school and public use, complete with real-time visualisations to
illustrate the environmental conditions in a local area. As part
of its consultation process, SWAQ recently conducted concept
testing for the website visualisations at UNSW Sydney with
over 30 high school science students selected from a range of
schools around Sydney, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and
regional NSW.
The science
This project has three key research foci around urbanisation:
environmental change, energy use and health. Sydney’s
population is predicted to grow by 30% within twenty years,
most of which is slated for the semi-rural fringes (Greater
Sydney Commission, 2018). The resulting urbanisation will
adversely impact temperature and air quality in these areas of
rapid population growth. UHI magnitude is calculated as the
concurrent temperature difference between an urban and a
rural site. At this point, it is difficult to calculate a UHI magnitude
for Sydney due to a lack of temperature observations in the
rural surrounds. The geographical location and coastal basin
topography of Sydney also complicates factors because a
coastal rural site will differ significantly from an inland rural
site, due to the moderating influence of the ocean and the sea
breeze on coastal suburbs. SWAQ sites enhance existing air
quality and meteorology networks by targeting regions lacking
monitoring instruments (e.g. urban growth areas and the
rural fringe). With a focus on observing urban weather and air
quality, SWAQ sensors are sited differently to standard synoptic
weather stations. In our case, we are interested in the impacts
of the urban environment on weather and air quality, and thus
sensors will be installed in street canyons, school playgrounds
and courtyards following WMO guidance for observations at
urban sites (Oke, 2006).
The SWAQ network will allow, for the first time, detailed spatial
analyses of the impacts of urbanisation on Sydney’s weather,
climate and air quality. With these observations the magnitude
of the urban heat island, and how it differs across the city, can
be calculated, and the spatial variability of health and energy
impacts of heat and air quality can be analysed. For example,
data collected can be used in research related to weather-
sensitivity of energy consumption and provide insights into
how weather (e.g. heatwaves) may interact with urban air
quality to impact human health.
In addition to the bespoke school data and web visualisations
targeted at a general audience, SWAQ will also provide high
temporal resolution data for urban climate, energy and health
researchers.
The monitoring network
The base monitoring network locations were chosen by using
weighted overlay spatial analyses to identify schools in regions
of projected urban and population growth, as well as identified
gaps in the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH)
monitoring network. SWAQ is currently negotiating with the
selected schools to finalise this network.
SWAQ is partnering with the NSW Smart Sensing Network
(NSSN) who will place their low-cost air quality sensors currently
in development alongside our Vaisala sensors. Further sensor
evaluation will be undertaken by co-locating one of our sensors
at the NSW OEH Chullora super site.
The first sensors will be installed in early 2019 and data will be
available from the project website: www.swaq.org.au.
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