Athens 2017 Climate Adaptation Plan featured four overarching actions for the city: 

• Blue and Green Infrastructure: maintenance of green infrastructure, planting new trees, greening in regeneration projects, green routes and metropolitan green corridors, urban planning and governance for new GI, creation of pockets parks, green roofs, green walls, urban agriculture, water saving actions in public spaces, blue corridors, fountains. 
• Built Environment: new pedestrianization projects, use of cool and/or sustainable materials, introduction of shading, other urban planning interventions. 
• Public health protection: cooling spots with water access, cool areas, air quality improvements, preparedness of municipal services, awareness campaigns for citizens (e.g., #coolathens). 
• Other: real time data, engaging the private sector, create a forum for sustainable practices. 

To support the implementation of these actions, climate services have been used. The primary example is the Extrema Global app, that was used to give personalised information to users in periods of heat according to their location in the city and their health state. The tool lacked uptake however, presumably due to a lack of awareness and limited communication. Therefore, there is room for improvement to update heat mapping and increase its accessibility. The main barrier for using climate tools and services that the city identified is the issue of different perceptions of risk between producers and users of information.  

Athens will update their Climate Action Plan, which is planned for release early 2022. This plan will describe a renewed adaptation vision, that targets further greening the city, giving 70% of the population access to green space as well as making 30% of its surface permeable again. REACHOUT will develop tools and services that can support this vision, identifying and prioritizing adaptation actions and identifying hotspots of climate impacts within the city.  

For Athens, the REACHOUT project is an opportunity to receive better flood maps for the city. Pluvial flood maps in city scale will be a breakthrough for Athens, as the main focus so far has been on heat mapping.  The maps can be used to identify flooding hotspots within the city. Within REACHOUT will be explored if a higher resolution analysis is possible, depending on the availability of input data, e.g., using a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). The expected result is a tailored, high-resolution pluvial flood map for the city of Athens. 

Moreover, Athens wants heat maps for historical and future heat, that shows the urban heat island effect. This information is needed to (1) identify vulnerable areas within the city and (2) prioritise areas for adaptation action. Currently, Athens uses information provided by EXTREMA-GLOBAL (https://extrema-global.com/). EXTREMA provided high-resolution maps with information regarding daytime surface temperature in the city in the scale of each building block, by using satellite data from the last three years (summer season). However, these maps are not sufficient for decision-making since there is no information on the future impacts of heat, which is also important. REACHOUT aims to fill this gap. 

Go to Athens’ climate story on heat waves realised within the REACHOUT project and learn about Sophia and her grandchildren Konstantinos and Zoi during a heatwave in 2030.

Link to the story in English

Link to the story in Greek