Innovate green building for urban heat mitigation and adaptation

Urban heat, the combined effect of heatwaves and heat islands, affects numerous cities worldwide.Beyond severe environmental, economic, and social consequences, urban heat is the cause of excess disease and deaths.Urban heat is the most fatal weather-related phenomenon in many nations.Moreover, heatwaves and heat islands can potentially synergize 1, creating severe heat-related challenges for urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas.Urban heat will be more frequent, severe, and intense in the coming decades, especially in developing and expanding cities.Evidence further shows that heat stymies progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2.The ageing trend in many urban populations compounds the risk of heat-related mortality and morbidity.Beating urban heat is a fundamental component of Sustainable Cities and Communities (Sustainable Development Goal 11) and Climate Action (Goal 13).However, so far, society has not been well prepared for urban heat, and limited actions have been carried out by governments and industry.The building and construction sector must be at the forefront of change to deliver sustainable, resilient, liveable, safe, healthy and inclusive built environments.Over-dependence on concrete-cement-asphalt-based construction materials and compact landscapes enhances heat absorption and storage, while reducing heat dissipation and evapotranspiration.This leads to buildings and road patches being commonly identified as hot spots on heat maps.Conventional site planning and design fail to set heat adaptation as a design goal, significantly constraining the thermal usability of outdoor environments when heat surpasses a normal level 3.Citizens are mostly forced to adapt indoors via air-conditioning systems, leading to an increase in building electricity consumption.Where the electricity is fossil-based, this can result in increased greenhouse gas emissions.Innovating and changing building and construction models, methods, and techniques is imperative to improve heat mitigation and adaptation capacity.Green building is a prospective and transformative industry that aims to deliver environmentally responsible and resource-efficient built environments.Integration of heat-related goals and targets into green building design ensures resilience to extreme heat in terms of site quality, building resistance, and occupant well-being and productivity.The basic need is to expand green building goals and targets for microclimate regulation beyond the original expectations of energy consumption reduction, carbon emission reduction, and indoor environmental quality 4.People-centric, heat-resilient cities of the future must include comfortable, safe, and healthy built environments for all, as well as convenient access to community services.There is a need to break down design goals and targets into different categories and