With rising temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events, urban heat has become a growing concern for communities, infrastructure, and public health across New South Wales. In response, Transport for NSW engaged Mosaic Insights to provide expert guidance on understanding and addressing urban heat risk across the state.

The project aimed to identify what makes areas vulnerable to urban heat, where the most at-risk locations are, and what interventions are most effective. We conducted a literature review to gather evidence on urban heat impacts relevant to NSW and developed a spatial analysis method to assess urban heat risk across urban areas with populations over 10,000.

Barriers to implementing urban heat interventions were analysed across government, industry, and academia. A cost-effectiveness analysis compared interventions—such as cool roofs and pavements, green infrastructure, and tree canopy expansion—based on their cooling benefit per dollar spent. The final report provided Transport for NSW with targeted, scalable recommendations to guide urban heat action at national, state, and local levels

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