Planning for extreme heat: How can cities beat the heat?

Topic stream:

· Mainstreaming solutions for a just transformative pathway: an integrated approach to climate resilience

Session/workshop description:

Some of the biggest challenges that cities have when responding to heat are how to ensure the continuity of heatwave plans and how to communicate with residents. As well as how to measure the direct and indirect losses that extreme heat brings to the economy and society. Addressing the urban heat challenge requires multi-faceted solutions: urban planning, policy changes, governance changes, technological innovations, and community engagement, among others.

Over the past 10 years, cities across Europe and the world have been implementing urban heat solutions based on evidence and data. Aiming to maintain function and ensure the most vulnerable are protected, using awareness campaigns, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement and participatory planning.

Urban heat impacts are intensifying with climate change, local governments need to continuously refine their approaches to keep up. This session brings together a panel of expert urban practitioners, including Chief Heat and Resilience Officers, who will explore state-of-the-art approaches and actions that are enabling them to build urban heat resilience.

The objective of this session is to bring expert city officer working at the forefront of heat resilience to share their innovative actions and experiences. The session will go beyond the recommendation of best practices, e.g. deployment of Nature Based Solutions, by exploring specifically how such these can become mainstreamed through climate stories or other tools and how cities can assess their benefits. The session will engage the audience through Q&A, and will be open to collect new ideas that have proved valuable for other cities.

Speakers:

Elissavet Bargianni, Chief Heat and Resilience Officer, City of Athens

Ilaria Guiliani, Chief Resilience Officer, Milan Municipality

Kristen Guida, Urban Resilience Manager at the Greater London Authority

Noémie Fompeyrine, Head of Resilience, Strategic Foresight, Research and Innovation, City of Paris

Methodology:

Our proposed panel session will foster a dynamic, interactive discussion among city representatives who will present how they elevate heat resilience in the agenda, make data-informed decision making and build partnerships to drive action. Chief Resilience Officers and expert urban practitioners will be among our panellists. This panel discussion aims to be relaxed and conversational. The format will encourage storytelling and conversation, with questions designed to provoke thoughtful responses and shared experiences.

Facilitated by:

Leon Kapetas, Lead of Climate Resilience and Programs, Europe & Middle East

For more info please visit:

https://urbanresilienceforum.eu/