The project investigates an overlooked paradox in hot and humid cities: green spaces that feel cooler to people can become lethal microclimate traps for Apis cerana, whose evaporative cooling fails when the air is nearly saturated. Using a literature review, Hong Kong summer weather data, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) calculations, systems mapping and scenario testing, the study reframes the bee as a bioindicator of urban thermodynamic quality. It develops a design toolkit that couples passive radiative cooling (PRC), which releases heat without adding moisture, with calibrated nature-based solutions (NBS) that retain shade, food and habitat. The toolkit is tested across three recurring urban typologies - street canyon, urban garden and waterfront - and uses a project-specific 0.30 kPa VPD viability line to compare interventions. A street-canyon prototype and four-phase transition roadmap then show how measurable pilot evidence could evolve into planning standards, multi-species ESG metrics and a future Listening City where human comfort and pollinator survival are evaluated together.

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Academic Supervisors: Prof. Laurent Gutierrez and Ms Adriana Caplova