Scientists and NGOs are unanimous : this winter is the warmest ever worldwide. And 2015 was even the warmest year ever recorded by the Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which showed that 2015 breaks the 2014 record of temperature by 0.13°C. According to the UK MET Office, the heat we all experience is a typical El Niño effect, this cyclical event that usually occurs in Latin America.
Despite this worrying trend, many cities have to face harsh winters, like the storm New York City experienced in January. And a lot of cities go through long, exhausting cold winters. How to keep them lively and liveable in freezing cold times?
Building a strategy to make you fall back in love with winter
Nobody wants to wander in the streets during winter. But this statement can become a real issue when your city is under the snow at least 2 months a year. And too many northern cities are planned without thinking of winter months, as if there were just 3 seasons in a year.
In Edmonton, a northern city in Canada, a councillor decided to launch a WinterCity Project to make the inhabitants fall back in love with this cold period of the year.
In three years, the WinterCity strategy tackled the various aspects of the city, from infrastructure to economy to social life. The plan included new design principles to maximize exposure to sunlight for future buildings, more places for winter sports, and various winter festivals to enliven the city throughout winter. Edmonton now faces winter more positively, but most of all, Edmontonians regained some pride, and revived the Canadian romanticism of snowy streets and landscape. CityLab
Enhancing Winter Mobility
What is the point of walking or cycling when it’s freezing cold and snow blocks streets and roads? Walkability is often a neglected aspect of urban planning when it comes to Winter Cities. Despite the temperature, mobility is an essential key to keep cities liveable.
Hazel Borys, an urbanist living in Winnipeg, the 7th largest city in Canada, provides some food for thought on how to create walkable neighbourhoods even in winter. She reminds us about the importance of having everything you need daily within a 5-minute walk, building short housing blocks in order to protect passers-by from the wind, or having “play-sheds” where people of all ages can gather and play nearby.
Riding a bike is also wrongly considered as a dangerous practice in winter. But Scandinavian cities frequently prove that it is possible to be bike-friendly, even during non-stop snowfalls. In Oulu, Finland, winter cycling is a pretty common thing: 30% of the children under 12 ride a bicycle to school year round, and the bicycle is considered as the most reliable form of transport, since the pathways are usually treated first.
You just need common sense, good design and a bit of organization to change or maintain mobility habits. Placemakers
Adding some fun to your winter
When you think of winter, you might remember memorable snowball battles with your friends and family. But it is not because you are a grown-up now that winter has to be a long, cold and boring season!
The last snowstorm in New York was a good occasion for city dwellers to add some fun to their daily routine: many of them were spotted skiing or snowboarding instead of walking. Besides being a fun way to get around, it is quite “a once in a lifetime opportunity”, as one skier said.
While some people experience new mobility during cold waves, others turn ordinary objects into surprising pieces of art. In Minneapolis, Tom Grotting made frozen pants sculptures he then displayed in public places to entertain curious passers-by. An ephemeral art that amused both his neighbours and the Internet. Mashable
Smart roads for safe winters
What if we could get rid of noisy salt trucks to unfreeze the roads?
A new type of concrete developed by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, can heat the surface and de-ice the road by itself. The material has the particularity to be conductive: electricity can run through it, and warm up the road surface enough to instantly melt snowflakes.
If this conductive concrete costs twice the price, the use of industrial waste products limits the manufacturing cost. Moreover, the heated slabs would be used only in dangerous spots, and their running cost would be much lower than paying for gritting trucks. FastCoExist