Speaker
Description
Open spaces inner cities are having a crucial role in reducing the negative effects of urban heat islands (UHIs) in cities, creating conditions for easier sustainable commuting people inner cities. Green areas, such as parks, urban forests in cities are providing cooling effects and help to lower the temperature in urban climate by providing shade and facilitating evapotranspiration (Gherri, 2024). High vegetation in open areas inner cities improve the quality of air by absorbing pollutant and releasing oxygen and at the same time enhance urban biodiversity enabling ecological balance for improving healthier urban environment (Yuan, 2024).
Europe is the continent experiencing the most rapid warming, with temperatures increasing at twice the global average rate. The summer of 2024 was recorded as the hottest on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S, 2024), resulting in detrimental effects on public health, urban functionality, natural ecosystems, and the economy (Heaviside et al., 2017; Karimi et al., 2023; Ramly et al., 2024).
Recognizing that European cities are among the most vulnerable to the UHI's negative effects, 19 partners including 10 cities from 12 countries of the Danube microregion to jointly develop solutions for reducing the negative effects of the UHI through the Be Ready project co-financed by the INTERREG Danube Programme (Be Ready, 2024). The main aim of the project is to collaboratively co-develop strategies to enhance climate change preparedness and resilience of 10 participating cities, Chisinau (Moldova), Galati (Romania), Heviz (Hungary), Kranj (Slovenia), Niš (Serbia), Podgorica (Montenegro), Ratibor (Czech Republic), Sofia (Bulgaria), Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Varaždin (Croatia).
The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a well-documented phenomenon wherein urban areas experience elevated temperatures relative to their rural surroundings (Oke, 2011). Urbanisation processes were leading toward loss of pervious areas and increasing build-up and impervious areas. Different construction materials have higher capacities of absorbing heat compared to natural materials end emitting it into the urban climate, especially during the night, and contributing conditions to the UHI.
The lack of holistic methods and tools for assessing urban areas vulnerable to the UHI negative effects was leading scientific partners involved in the Be Ready project (BOKU, UIRS, STUBA and Science and Technology Park Niš) to develop a methodological approach and an assessment tool easy to use for cities on different levels, city, district and neighbourhood level from different aspects. One of the aspects is devoted to the build environment with surrounding. Urban form, green urban spaces and vegetation were two criteria proposed for assessing the urban environment allowing to identify risk zones inner cities including open spaces. The paper aims to identify opportunities and barriers of existing data for the risk assessment, drivers of the UHI on open spaces and opportunities for developing strategies and interventions for reducing UHI negative effects.
The results of the assessment will contribute understanding to the role and potentials of open spaces to mitigate UHI negative effects, enabling better urban planning, policy development, strategies, development and efficient implementation of interventions in cities.
Acknowledgement: The contribution was developed and financially supported by the international project Be Ready, co-financed by the INTERREG Danube programme (2024-2030) running from 2024 till 2026.
References
Be ready project (2024). [Online] Available at: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/be-ready
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). (2024). European State of the Climate 2023, Summary. [Online] available at: https://doi.org/10.24381/bs9v-8c66
Gherri, B. (2024). Urban Green Spaces and Their Role in Responding to the Heat Island Effect in Historical Urban Context. In: Littlewood, J.R., Jain, L., Howlett, R.J. (eds) Sustainability in Energy and Buildings 2023. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 378. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8501-2_40
Karimi, A., Mohammad, P., García-Martínez, A. et al. (2023) New developments and future challenges in reducing and controlling heat island effect in urban areas. Environ Dev Sustain 25, 10485–10531. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02530-0
Oke, T. (2011) Urban heat islands. In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, New York, NY: Routledge p. 120.
Ramly, N., Hod, R., Hassan, M. R., Arsad, F. S., Mohd Radi, M. F., & Ismail, R. (2024). Impact of urban heat island on human health: a systematic review: a systematic review. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 24(1), 172–186. https://mjphm.org/index.php/mjphm/article/view/1970
Yuan, T. (2024). The Role of Green Infrastructure in Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 14, 3155-3164. doi: 10.4236/ojapps.2024.1411207.
| Keywords | open spaces; urban heat island; climate change; urban resilience; cities |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
