Neighborhoods scale resilience facing heatwave events. Metropolitan area of Mendoza Argentina as an study case.

MARÍA BELÉN SOSA; MARÍA ALICIA CANTÓN; ERICA CORREA

Resilient and sustainable cities research, policy and practice

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Año: 2023; p. 472 - 486

The current increasing instability of the global climate system is predicted to potentially lead to an increase in climate variability. A changing climate is expected to increase average summer temperatures and the frequency and intensity of hot days. In particular, the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures is expected to change. Heat waves are among the most dangerous of natural hazards, but rarely receive adequate attention. In contrast to other extreme climate events, heat waves have only recently become recognized as a significant threat to environment and society. The G20 Climate Risk Atlas indicates that in all countries heat waves could last at least ten times by 2050. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have created compound risks that negatively affect the adaptive capacity of governments, communities and societies, particularly in developing countries. A deadly heat wave left its signature on the land in Argentina in the past December 19-26, 2013. Nearly the entire country was much warmer than normal, with some locations more than 15°C above average. According to news reports, air temperatures reached as high as 45°C. High demand for air conditioning led to widespread power outages and water shortages. Mendoza is the fourth city in demographic and economic importance in Argentina. It is located in the central west of the country with a high aridity index (low water availability, abundant solar resources throughout the year, high temperatures and thermal amplitude, and high percentage of clear days). Regional simulations for Mendoza indicate increases of around 3°C in the summer months at the end of the 21st century. Also, climatic simulations estimated from atmosphere models an important warming for the western region of Argentina. On a microclimatic scale, the Metropolitan Mendoza Area register an urban heat island phenomenon that reaches maximums of 10ºC and average values of 6ºC -values comparable with Tokyo, whose building density and intensity of anthropogenic contribution is visibly higher-. Currently, the number of tropical nights (as defined by the World Health Organization as nights with temperatures higher than 20°C) only reached 4-5 per summer in the 1950s and 1960s, while in the currently exceeds 30 nights. Climate vulnerabilities on a global scale will intensify heat waves and drought in the region and will aggravate the magnitude of the urban heat island. The vulnerabilities described require reducing temperatures in the city and promoting the use of renewable energies in order to increase energy efficiency. This approach aims to generate resilient cities that can be understood as the ongoing capacity of cities to absorb, adapt, transform and prepare for shocks and stresses along the economic, social, institutional and environmental dimensions, with the aim of maintaining the functions of a city and improving response to future shocks. Today the term resilient has been mostly used in climate change adaptation, sustainability science, disaster risk and poverty reduction, and increasingly in economics and planning studies. The three main approaches to resilience are the socio-ecological, the sustainable livelihoods and the disaster risk reduction approaches. This study addresses two of these approaches: sustainable livelihoods and disaster risk reduction. In this context, this chapter seeks to increase the resiliency capacity of neighborhoods by improve the outdoor thermal behavior and indoor energy performance. Through explore the results from the implementation of different strategies in order to create cool cities: (i) cool materials; (ii) green infrastructure; and (iii) building densities. In order to achieved compact and resilient neighborhoods, as a sustainable urban development model for arid climates.