WSROC Cool Suburbs

About

Cool Suburbs is a rating and assessment tool for building heat resilience in urban planning and development.

From precinct master plans to lot-scale design considerations, the Cool Suburbs Tool can be used to inform decision-making across the entire development process for both government and industry. The Tool includes a rating system to assess the heat resilience delivered by urban designs at various development scales. The development of the rating system was supported by an expert science panel who synthesised urban heat science in an easy-to-use platform.

The Cool Suburbs Tool:

Sets out a broad range of measures (represented by credits in the Cool Suburbs Tool) that guide improved place-based urban heat resilience.
Identifies specific measures that should be considered at different stages of the development process; supporting the Tool’s use in early stages of planning and design.
Scores (via a rating system) the urban heat resilience of a range of developments from precinct to lot scale.
Provides guidance for the assessment of urban heat resilience in existing, transforming, and new suburbs.

For a detailed overview of the Cool Suburbs Tool and all credits download the Cool Suburbs Fact Sheet

Download The Tool

The Cool Suburbs Tool is publicly available and free to use. We do ask that you to fill out your details before you can download the required information to ensure we can notify you of any changes and updates to the Tool. Please ensure you read through the Terms of Use carefully as it outlines user requirements and required acknowledgements.

Cool Suburbs Tool V1 includes:

Cool Suburbs User Guide and Science Rationale (pdf document): Outlines key concepts, describes the credits and criteria, and provides the scientific basis and references for the Tool.
Cool Suburbs Tool (excel spreadsheet): The Cool Suburbs scorecard identifies all of the Cool Suburb requirements to help ensure all conditions and performance pathways for a development are considered.

The Project

Cool Suburbs delivers on Turn Down the Heat Strategy Action 4: Land use and design controls that prioritise resilience.

Cool Suburbs is also a flagship action (Action 9) under the Resilient Sydney Strategy (2018).

Project partners: This is a collaboration between WSROC (lead), Resilient Sydney and Greater Sydney Commission. The project engaged a consortium to deliver the Cool Suburbs Tool: Edge Environment, Kinesis, HARC consultancy and Water Sensitive Cities Australia.

A science panel provided evidence and justification for the tool. The panel consists of subject matter experts from Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of NSW and Western Sydney University.

Proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Local Government NSW.