Up to 10-Fold Difference by Living Environment... "Older Villa Neighborhoods Suffer More in the Heat"

[Anchor]

It is scorching wherever you go these days, but a survey shows that the perceived heat varies greatly depending on where you live, even under the same temperatures. Areas densely packed with older houses are reportedly much hotter than apartment complexes.

We look into the reasons behind this in Morning Zoom-In, reported by Kim Minjun.

[Reporter]

Gaemi Village in Hongje-dong, Seodaemun-gu, is known as Seoul's last daldongne, or hilltop shanty town.

Old houses are densely packed together.

This is near the very top of the village.

I walked up here all the way from the entrance, and because the slope is so steep, just a little walking makes sweat pour down your body like rain.

As you can see, there are no proper shades or parks to take a short break.

Measured with a thermal imaging camera, the roof temperature approaches 66°C (151°F).

[Nearby Resident: Oh, it is hot. We cannot breathe. Because the ceilings are thin and poor like that. In the evening, the heat radiates downward.]

The heat vulnerability of detached houses is about 1.4 times that of multi-unit housing like apartments.

This is because open spaces and roads around the houses are covered with asphalt or concrete, preventing heat from escaping easily.

Apartment complexes in Gangnam, Seoul, are a different story.

Green spaces created everywhere provide shade and absorb heat, making them much cooler than areas dense with aging houses.

[Nearby Resident: (Green spaces) are naturally cooler. Even just a little while ago, walking here, you could see heat rising in waves from the asphalt. Coming here, it is at least a little bit cooler.]

While the severity of perceived heat waves varies greatly depending on the living environment, last month (July), the number of days with an average perceived temperature of 35°C (95°F) or higher averaged 8.4 days for the top 10 neighborhoods, compared to 0.8 days for the bottom 10 neighborhoods, showing a difference of more than 10 times.

Areas with high perceived temperatures were mostly dense with older housing and downtown districts, while the bottom regions were mostly areas with large apartment complexes surrounded by ample green space.

Experts advise that responses to heat waves, such as expanding green spaces on public land and improving living conditions for vulnerable groups, must be implemented in a comprehensive manner.

[Bae Woong-gyu / Professor, Department of Urban Systems Engineering, Chung-Ang University: If walls can be removed, they should be removed to some extent, and there must be trees so that as they sway, pathways for wind movement are formed, improving the environment in a way that allows trapped heat to escape.]

Detailed countermeasures tailored to living environments are needed so that the severe heat is not felt so differently depending on where people live.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
Reported by Lee Sang-hak and Kang Si-woo | Video by Kim Jun-hee | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.