Phase 2 - SIMPaCT in Practice: Final Report

Cities are hotspots of climate change. Similar to many capital cities around the globe, Sydney is experiencing the synergistic impacts of rising air temperatures and local heat phenomena related to the urban form and its optical and thermodynamic behaviour. Together, these impacts result in urban overheating, with negative effects on public health, ecosystem services, social fabric and infrastructure performance.
Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) has been identified as one of the most efficient means to lower summer air temperatures in cities. This cooling effect of UGI can be maximised by irrigation. The present project has developed and operated a novel technological solution that helps to keep UGI well hydrated and thus offers an automated solution to provide maximal cooling through evapotranspiration from plants.
The SIMP@CT project commenced in 2021, and was developed and rolled out at Sydney’s Bicentennial Park in 2022. It fully controlled the existing park irrigation system between January 2023 and May 2024 without major technical issues. During this time, SIMP@CT detected irrigation failures and major leaks, engaged with the park visitors via extensive signage and QR codes across the park and won several important national landscape design, sustainability and technology awards.
During Phase 2, SIMP@CT experienced a range of operational, technical and even water supply issues. However, during the operation of the smart irrigation application, not a single tree or lawn died or suffered from drought stress. This was a very positive outcome of the project, as no precedent of the performance of an AI-controlled park irrigation existed before this project. Also, one of the major motivations for SIMP@CT was to prevent drought damage to the park, which happened in the summer of 2019/20 where large sections for the park were severely impacted by extreme heat stress and lack of irrigation from a technical fault. This did not reoccur during the operation of SIMP@CT.
Detailed environmental monitoring revealed a pronounced Urban Heat Island Effect for the town centre of Sydney Olympic Park. Nighttime air temperatures in the town centre were 10°C or more warmer compared to locations in Bicentennial Park. These large differences were predominately observed in the months outside of summer (e.g., March, September, October). Throughout summer months the average Park Cool Island Effect, which describes the temperature difference between the park and the town centre ranged between 1.3-2.3°C with maximum cooling effects of nearly 8°C.