Urban Heat and Livability

Abstract

The rapidly changing climate is a crisis that, at its core, challenges many of the systems that support human habitation in cities, where the majority of people now live. The local effects of our destabilizing climate are most profound through extreme events, and heat waves are the most notorious for killing more people than all other natural disasters combined. In places like Doha, Qatar, where ambient temperatures can reach upward of 50 °C, will, by necessity, be at the forefront of adaptation strategies to improve livability through mediating extreme heat. Even though the region has long considered extreme heat in planning urban development, increasing temperatures require further reformulation of planning and development systems to accommodate new questions relevant to livability. This chapter provides a description of the relationship between rapidly growing urban regions, such as Doha, and the relationship between the built environment and human livability.