Adelaide: an urban heat island

The skyline of 1970s modernist Adelaide from the top floor of the  Wakefield St  car park. We are  looking west towards Victoria Square.

Little has changed in this part of Adelaide since I  left living in  Sturt St in 2014 to move to Encounter Bay on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.  The only change is the  hotel  on Whitmore Square-- the dark building in  the left  background. 

Summer in the CBD is  very hot due to the way surfaces like asphalt trap heat even as cars and buildings exude it. When a city is markedly warmer than  its surrounding rural areas, it is called an urban heat island.   Adelaide is one of the worst in Australia and it can be stressful, if not dangerous, to be outside  during a heatwave with 40+ degrees temperatures.  With  climate heating, the impact of higher temperatures will become more evident in the CBD. 

Austral Stores building

Slowly, ever so slowly, I am returning to working on the Adelaide book project after couple of years.  We  left  living in Adelaide's CBD about   3 years or so ago, and shifted to living on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast. Most of my daily photography on the poodlewalks  now happens along  the coast, whereas when we lived in Adelaide,  the daily photography emerged from walking the CBD with the poodles.   

Adelaide's  CBD has changed since 2016.   What is noticeable to me as a visitor about the  new development in the CBD  is the increase in both the high rise apartments and the coffee shops/cafes.  Adelaide is becoming post-industrial. 

Occasional day trips to Adelaide are all that I can  do these days, and this particular trip  was designed to  pick up the photography from where I had left off 3 years ago.  This photo was made on a day trip to Adelaide when  I was able to spend some time wandering around the  CBD as a flaneur.  The above picture was taken from a car park  behind the back of The Austral Stores building in Hindley St.