Northern Beaches Council and Western Sydney University have installed heat sensors to measure temperatures in 30 locations across the Brookvale area over summer.

This initiative is a first for the Northern Beaches and part of our ongoing efforts to develop strategies to cool our suburbs and improve the local environment. 

The heat sensors, which are small electronic devices housed within aluminium cans, are installed in public trees across Brookvale, tied securely with a cable tie. These sensors will collect temperature data at 10-minute intervals over a 3-month period, until February 2025.

Northern Beaches Mayor Sue Heins said that the Council is committed to creating a cooler and more sustainable environment for our community. 

“Given the strategic importance of Brookvale and planned future growth, we need to better understand the impact of heat within the area and find ways to reduce urban heat,’ Mayor Heins said.

“This project will help us understand local heat and hot spots and mitigate urban heat through future greening strategies, like planting trees, ensuring a healthier, more comfortable living environment for our residents,” she said.  

Brookvale has one of the lowest tree canopy coverages (21%) in the local government area, and experiences high urban heat (over 9°C above reference temperature). Much of the industrial and mixed-use areas have less than 10 per cent tree cover.

The Brookvale Structure Plan - Greening Strategy builds on the work identified in the Northern Beaches Tree Canopy Plan by providing scientific, evidence-based data that focuses specifically on the Brookvale precinct. 

The Greening Strategy will inform planning controls to increase urban tree canopy along streets, public open spaces and as part of new buildings, while maintaining suitable access for vehicles within the industrial precincts. This methodology can also be flowed on to other low canopy locations to obtain informative data.

This type of data gathering utilises industry-leading heat benchmarking methodology developed by Western Sydney University. 
This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Housing Support Scheme Grant.

Western Sydney University Heat logger project: Sebastian Pfautsch, s.pfautsch@westernsydney.edu.au