Climate change and cooling cities

Among them, extreme heat challenge, the combined effect of heat waves and heat islands, is the deadliest disaster (Anderson & Bell, 2011; City of Sydney, 2015; De Bono et al., 2004). For instance, the extreme heat event in Europe in 2003 killed about 72,000 people (WMO, 2021), and the extreme heat event in June–August 2022 caused more than 53,000 deaths (EU, 2022). Beyond health and lives, extreme heat is evidenced as the culprit of excessive energy and water consumption, environmental deterioration, economic losses, social inequality, biodiversity loss, etc.
(Butters & Cheshmehzangi, 2018; Cheshmehzangi & Butters, 2015; Cheshmehzangi et al., 2021; He et al., 2021). What’s worse, extreme heat challenges will be more frequent, severe, and intense, along with climate change and urbanization. Therefore, addressing global warming or urban warming is urgent to ensure human survival and prosperity.
Moreover, extreme heat and its impacts are interlinked with many other mega challenges. Through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations, extreme heat deteriorates goals of Good health and well-being (Goal 3), Gender Equality (Goal 5), Clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), Affordable and clean energy (Goal 7), Decent work and economic growth (Goal 8), Reduced inequalities
(Goal 10), Sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), Climate Action (Goal 13), and Peace, justice, and strong institutions (Goal 16) (Khosla et al., 2021). Accordingly, taking action to address urban heat challenges is an approach to promoting and securing urban sustainability. Such an argument is true since extreme heat is or will be a new normal for many cities in the coming years.

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