Building and school-playground design to protect from weather extremes

This chapter provides insight into key knowledge, applications, guidelines and progress surrounding school-environment design on mitigating the impacts of extreme weather, with a focus on weather extremes most related to climate change, including thermal exposures (extreme heat and cold), flooding (hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons, extreme rainfall), severe storms (thunderstorms) and wildfire impacts causing poor air quality. The chapter further emphasises the planning of landscapes according to local climatology using detailed assessment methods and design parameters to reduce extreme heat as well as energy use in school buildings. Such thinking aids in important decisions to protect schoolchildren from weather extremes today and into the future.