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Climate change and urbanization are intensifying heat stress risks, threatening public health and liveability (Böcker & Thorsson, 2014; Ebi et al., 2021; IPCC, 2022). Rising temperatures disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, including those with limited mobility, low incomes, or health conditions (Ellena, Breil, & Soriani, 2020; Gronlund, 2014; Reid et al., 2009; Voelkel et al., 2018). Local governments tasked with equitable implementation often struggle to translate national, regional, and local policy ambitions into impactful adaptation projects (Ende et al., 2022). Despite the EU’s commitment to prioritize vulnerable populations in adaptation, implementation of equitable planning processes remains limited (Birkmann et al., 2020; ETC/CCA-LULUCF, 2023).
Conventional heat adaptation planning focuses narrowly on hazard indicators like Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), often ignoring the socio-economic, health, and demographic factors that shape vulnerability (Ellena, Breil, & Soriani, 2020). This narrow approach overlooks the compounded challenges faced by marginalized communities, whose vulnerabilities result from intersecting social, economic, and environmental factors (Harlan et al., 2006; Kang, Park, & Jang, 2024). While mainstreaming supports effective adaptation (Biesbroek, 2021), municipal silos and sectoral planning hinder integrated solutions, necessitating a transdisciplinary framework incorporating diverse risk indicators, policy guidance, and stakeholder collaboration (Frans et al., 2016). By dismantling silos and fostering co-creation, this approach ensures equitable and effective adaptation planning grounded in practical realities.
Cool Cities, an EU Interreg NSR project, develops a framework for heat stress adaptation that encompasses short-, mid-, and long-term planning horizons. The approach incorporates diverse indicators—meteorological, environmental, socio-economic, health, and demographic—to ensure equitable outcomes and prioritize projects for marginalized populations. Eight partner municipalities from five EU countries serve as testing grounds to empirically validate the approach across diverse political and governance contexts, yet facing comparable heat-related threats. Effective adaptation relies on (policy) integration across sectors. This study fosters transdisciplinary collaboration, by engaging municipal stakeholders to optimize co-benefits and synergies, prioritizing locations where heat and related challenges are addressed integrally. Ultimately, the project aims to bridge the implementation gap by promoting actionable, equitable, and streamlined adaptation planning practices.
This study adopts a data-driven methodology to design "cool networks"—city-wide network of thermally comfortable locations and slow-traffic routes, consisting of pedestrian and cycling pathways. A GIS-based thermal comfort assessment is conducted using high-resolution PET maps to identify and optimize these networks. Through a zonal histogram,100x100-meter grid cells are evaluated to determine their compliance with thermal comfort thresholds. Primary slow traffic routes, are overlaid onto this grid to map existing cool networks and identify gaps. A GIS-based risk assessment is then conducted integrating hazard indicators (e.g., PET), exposure metrics (e.g., population density), and vulnerability indicators (e.g., health conditions, socio-economic status). This approach establishes a long-term vision for a cool network, and identifies areas where adaptation interventions are most urgently needed or likely to yield the greatest impact.
To ensure prioritization is inclusive, equitable, and context-sensitive, the process incorporates a policy scan and participatory framework. Co-creation sessions, utilizing, Multi-Criteria Analysis with municipal stakeholders, including planners, designers, engineers, and other urban professionals, are facilitated to prioritize projects by combining qualitative insights with quantitative data. Institutional knowledge ensures that local expertise, governance structures, and practical considerations are integrated into decision-making.
This research offers planners a replicable, equity-focused framework for addressing heat challenges through cool network planning. Combining GIS-based risk assessments, policy scans, and co-creation, it ensures adaptation strategies are data-driven, context-sensitive, and inclusive. By prioritizing projects transparently based on feasibility, equity, and impact, the framework integrates heat resilience with mobility planning, emphasizes vulnerable populations, and supports broader sustainability goals like active transportation and biodiversity. This approach advances the EU’s commitment to equitable climate resilience, fostering thermally comfortable, accessible, and socially equitable cities.
References
Biesbroek, R., 2021. Policy integration and climate change adaptation. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 52, pp.75–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.07.003.
Birkmann, J. et al., 2020. Strengthening risk-informed decision-making. Disaster Prevention and Management, 29(5), pp.663–679. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-05-2020-0147.
Böcker, L. & Thorsson, S., 2014. Weather effects on cycling shares. Weather, Climate, and Society, 6(4), pp.468–481. https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-13-00066.1.
Ebi, K.L. et al., 2021. Hot weather and heat extremes. The Lancet, 398(10301), pp.698–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01208-3.
Ellena, M. et al., 2020. Heat-health nexus in urban contexts. Urban Climate, 34, p.100676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100676.
van den Ende, M.A. et al., 2022. Mainstreaming adaptation in spatial planning. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 66, pp.2903–2921. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2092724.
ETC/CCA-LULUCF, 2023. Just resilience for Europe. European Environment Agency. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.
Gronlund, C.J., 2014. Disparities in heat-related health effects. Current Epidemiology Reports, 1(3), pp.165–173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-014-0014-4.
IPCC, 2022. Climate change 2022 – impacts and adaptation. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.
Reid, C.E. et al., 2009. Heat vulnerability determinants. Environmental Health Perspectives, 117(11), pp.1730–1736. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.0900683.
| Keywords | Climate adaptation planning; heat stress; climate justice; risk assessments; co-creation |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
