World Tour Station: Lima, Peru
Channel: ENVI-met GmbH
Date: 2022-09-16

Lima, Peru, is one of the most arid megacities in the world. It deals with extreme solar radiation, increasing temperatures and an exponential densification process, in both formal and informal settlements. 

Despite the natural constraint on vegetation growth, the current approach to urban vegetation largely ignores its impact on local environmental challenges, on urban temperature. Therefore, for vegetation to be a sustainable urban heat mitigation measure, it is necessary to implement water-sensitive strategies that maximise vegetation’s benefits on the urban climate. 

To define such strategies, ENVI-met was used to analyse an informal settlement in Lima during a hot summer day. Informal settlements are home to more than two million inhabitants and are the centre of Lima’s future development. Three scenarios were modelled: one in the early stage of development; a highly developed scenario under a business-as-usual (BAU) densification and current vegetation approach; and a scenario with proposed improvements, considering local water-sensitive strategies.