Bendigo streets most vulnerable to heat revealed as plan forms to cool them

The City of Greater Bendigo is drawing up lists of the 10 hottest streets in each suburb with the help of separate research expected to appear soon in academic journal Science of the Total Environment.

The streets that have rocketed to the top of tree-planting lists after RMIT researchers put every photo Google Maps took for its street views of Bendigo through computer system programmed to recognise every image of tree, road and sky.

More news

Final lists are still being worked on as part of a long-term action plan but the council has revealed the most heat-vulnerable streets in every suburb.

You can see whether your street topped the list here:

Bendigo council urban forester Tania MacLeod took a thermal imaging camera out to some streets last summer and found they could be between 20 and 30 degrees hotter than leafier counterparts.

"We know the elderly, the very young and sick are more susceptible to extreme heat," she said.

Many of the leafy streets have higher property values, suggesting some poorer Bendigonians could be more exposed to the heat because of their address.

Sometimes too, the lack of shade can be linked to factors like newer suburbs or wider streets.

The council expects to finalise its 10-year-long plan for priority tree planting in 2021, Ms MacLeod said.

"It will really form the skeleton of our greening plan," she said.

The council is using maps linked to the RMIT researchers work to help steer that process, including this one, which shows areas in Golden Square should be prioritised because they are more vulnerable to the heat:

However, the council is already using the hot-spot research to make decisions about tree plantings.

Ms MacLeod said Allingham Street was recently planted with trees directly because RMIT research showed it was one of the most heat-exposed areas in Golden Square.

The council officer is among six researchers named authors of forthcoming paper and are part of a group led by RMIT's Chayn Sun.

Their research is part of a long-term push to map the coolest travel routes through the city to encourage more people to walk and ride bikes.

The paper is intended to showcase lessons and study methods learnt in Bendigo, which could be extended to other cities where urbanisation has traditionally left areas with less trees, and more impervious surfaces like concrete and bitumen that act like heat sinks.