It’s Hot
Yes it’s hot outside in the United Kingdom. This is a blog on ideas of how to keep your plot cool and you cool. Whether you are a private land owner of a large garden, a site manager for a housing association, a property developer, home owner or a tenant, we have some creative design ideas of how to improve your local environment.
Do you find it increasingly hard to keep cool in the recent rising summer temperatures?
We have some tips for keeping you and your family cool.
Now
- Stay out of the sun when it’s hot.
- Try to keep buildings cool by keeping windows closed with curtains closed when windows receive morning or afternoon sun.
- Open windows at night when temperate has dropped.
- Get wet, have a quick shower, or if at work use a damp cloth on exposed skin such as face and arms and neck.
- Wear lose fitting cotton clothing is also recommended by government in their2018 Heatwave Plan.
- Drink plenty
For the Future
1) It’s hot now, but also in the long term, you will need to plan your plot to provide shade; by planting trees. Not only will the shade help you to live comfortably but it will also make the whole neighborhood more pleasant. Large trees are best. Plant Trees which are native if possible.
Save Exisitng Trees
2) It also goes without saying that it is sensible to conserve natural assets. In the face of climate change these will prove vital in combating effects of rising temperatures. If you have mature trees then conserve those. A mature tree for instance, brings huge benefits by cooling surrounding air, lowering temperatures for people living nearby. Considering removing a mature tree? First, stop and consider whether that felling is absolutely necessary? Nine times out of ten it will not be. Also, is your tree protected by a TPO or do you live in a Conversation Area in both these cases you will need to apply to the Local Planning Authority (LPA) for permission?
Other Benefits of Large Trees
Trees have a large number of other eco system services, including providing visual interest and a source of food and shelter for wildlife. In the very hot weather we have been increasingly experiencing, trees are above all one of our major assets in combatting adverse effects of temperatures rising. Transpiration through the trees’ leaves lowers surrounding air temperatures and cools down the air of towns and cities. They also clean help clean the air. If you are really suffering from the heat and you live near a large wood go into the wood and see how much cooler it feels.
The hard surfaces of buildings in cities and towns , reflect heat, making a heat island effect of up to 5 degrees on hottest days. By adding trees, the heat is deflected and absorbed and the temperatures are lowered. This makes places with mature trees more pleasant to live in.