Effectiveness of heat countermeasures tested at event in the ‘hottest city in Japan’

KUMAGAYA, Saitama — This east Japan municipality known as “the hottest city in Japan” recently held an activity to check the effectiveness of anti-heat measures locals devised, part of the “Smart Cool City Workshop” that the municipal government started this June to think about future urban development in a “cool” way.

About 30 people, including local residents and students, were divided into five groups to test their own heat countermeasures during the event on July 27. These varied from standard ones such as laying artificial turf and splashing water on the ground, to new twists such as using a water hose inspired by snow-melting pipes found buried in the ground in snowy areas. Participants took detailed measurements of temperature changes before and after the experiments.

A “water balloon batting” trial was held at Manpei Park. Under the slogan “Cool it down by playing!” seven children from a local baseball school smashed 1,000 water balloons one after another with bats. Amid the children’s cheers, spattering water soaked into the ground. The highest temperature in Kumagaya that day was 37 degrees Celsius, but a simple measurement showed that this was lowered by about 10 C. Yoshiyuki Uematsu, who came up with the idea, was sweating as he filled the balloons with water, and said, “The children are excited and enthusiastic.”

With the cooperation of Prof. Yohei Shiraki of Rissho University’s Faculty of Data Science and others, the workshop used a simple weather observation device invented by Shiraki that costs only a few thousand yen (somewhere in the low tens of dollars) to produce. Using the device, the city aims to establish an observation method and collect data for a project to provide the know-how of an “advanced heat control area.”

Deputy Mayor Eiji Oshima said, “We have not yet decided whether it will be a nonprofit group or a corporate organization, but we hope to have a plan for the project in place by the end of this fiscal year.”

(Japanese original by Hirohiko Kumamoto, Kumagaya Bureau)