Outdoor playgrounds and climate change : importance of surface materials and shade to extend play time and prevent burn injuries

Surfaces in outdoor playgrounds get hot in the sun and can cause serious skin burns in children. In-situ measurements from 10 playgrounds in Sydney showed that the maximum and average surface temperatures of sunexposed playground equipment and flooring surfaces were frequently above skin contact burn thresholds. Black and dark-coloured wet pour rubber and synthetic turf were the hottest floor materials, all having maximum surface temperatures (Ts_max) > 80 ◦C. A blue rubber dolphin was the hottest piece of play equipment, with a Ts_max of 91.8 ◦C. A systematic assessment of common synthetic flooring materials exposed to full sun showed notable differences in Ts_max between material types and colour-tones. Synthetic turf with 40 mm long grass blades (STlng-GR) was the hottest material (Ts_max = 84.5 ◦C), followed by dark blue styrene butadiene rubber (SBRD-BL, Ts_max = 81.1 ◦C), dark green ethylene propylene diene polymer (EPDMD-GR-2, Ts_max = 77.8 ◦C), dark brown thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPVD-BR, Ts_max = 71.8 ◦C), and intermediate blue thermoplastic polyolefin (TPOI-BL, Ts_max = 65.0 ◦C). All these materials were hot enough to cause contact burns on typical, warm summer days when children are likely to visit outdoor playgrounds. Surface temperatures were significantly reduced in the shade and never reached burn threshold temperatures. Selection of appropriate material type and colourtone, together with the provision of shade can remove the hazard risk for contact skin burns from outdoor playgrounds. Results of this work will assist playground designers and managers to provide safer places for our children to play longer in increasingly warmer summers

Measuring local-scale canopy-layer air temperatures in the built environment : a flexible method for urban heat studies

To reduce increasing human morbidity and mortality due to urban overheating, urban cooling strategies need to be targeted towards intra-urban hot spots. The application of findings from numerous urban heat studies is limited because methods do not measure air temperature relevant to the human experience with a sufficient level of data granularity. In this work, we developed and tested a unit consisting of a temperature data logger and a custom-made weather shield that is substantially less expensive than published alternatives and can be deployed with high spatial flexibility to measure canopy-layer (near-surface) air temperature relevant to people living in the built environment. Accuracy of results was compared with a more expensive, commercially available scientific instrument as well as official Bureau of Meteorology weather stations in Sydney, Australia. The unit costs around 15% of the price of the tested alternative and only 25% of the least expensive published alternative. Data quality was almost identical to that provided by more expensive scientific instruments and official weather stations. Temporal and spatial coverage and the resulting granularity of air temperature data were very high. The air temperature measurement method reported here can be used in future urban heat studies to determine intraurban hot spots. Resultant knowledge can be used to target cooling strategies that maximise benefits to the human population, reducing heat-related illnesses and death in overheating cities