GOOD PRACTICES FOR COOLING URBAN SPACES

Be Ready project partnership, coordinated by Sofia Development Association, developed a collection of practical solutions from the Danube region cities how to mitigate urban heat effect and improve outdoor thermal comfort. The examples come from 21 cities in 11 countries and present different approaches: from increased green spaces and vegetation, to using cool and reflective surfaces on buildings and pavements and implementing water features. Diverse practices are presented: creating water surfaces, opening a garden education center, developing “mobile forests”, cooling art installations, parishes open doors and many more. All practices have one thing in common: they involve residents in planning and implementing the cooling strategies to ensure solutions are effective and tailored to local needs.

The Mapping report with good practices is available here.

To stay informed, please visit the website and the social media accounts of the BeReady project: website (https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/be-ready ), Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bereadyprojecteu, LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/beready-project/.    

Be Ready is an INTERREG Danube Region project co-financed by the European Union.

SOFIA CLIMATE SANDBOX WORKSHOP

Open air co-working space for civil society organizations, heat asylum for the community, community vegetable garden, community rain collectors, seating area with tables and board games, a demonstration site showcasing urban heat islands mitigation measures, yard art residency and environment civic education classroom – these are just some of the co-creation ideas how to transform a neglected municipal yard on 55 Veslets Street, Sofia. This Climate sandbox workshop was organized by Sofia Development Association and Bureau for Integration and Social Innovations in the framework of Be Ready project. It brought together a variety of stakeholders to design together a road map for Sofia pilot project implementation.

The pilot venue is selected to be in area of Lavov most (‘Lion’s Bridge’), one of the major crossroads in Sofia, in Draz mahala, close to the central railway station and central bus station. The pilot implementation, aiming to create a climate refuge from the urban heat islands, will start in July 2025, using the participative approach of its ideation and co-creation of the urban environment.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.

BEREADY RECOGNIZED AMONG INTERREG CE AND INTERREG DRP PROJECTS IN THE FIELD OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

A meeting organized jointly by the Interreg Central Europe and Interreg Danube Region Programmes on 11 April 2025 intended to reinforce synergies and partnerships between actions funded by the two programs in the field of climate change adaptation. As one of the ten projects invited to participate, BeReady presented its objectives, solutions and achievements thus far. The project topic – urban heat islands (UHI) and cities’ preparedness and mitigation capacity – is gaining importance due to the global warming and climate change but is yet to take center place in urban adaptation strategies. The approach taken by BeReady combines UHI risk and vulnerability assessment, online assessment tools, city pilots and mutual learning and training to address UHI and protect vulnerable populations. Projects featured in the meeting, for example, Ready4Heat, CICADA4CE, pursue similar objectives to mitigate climate change; we’ll be exploring opportunities for collaboration in the next phase of activities. This September, the BeReady cities from 10 Danube region countries will be hosting peer review visits for evaluation of their UHI mitigation pilots and will gladly welcome representatives of the sister projects. Jointly developing policy inputs and recommendations for improving the strategic planning efforts for climate adaptation in the Danube region is another area for potential collaboration that was identified in the meeting.

As BeReady moves into the second year of implementation, we look forward to strengthening our partnerships and sharing insights with like-minded allies for a greener, climate-resilient Danube area.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.

THE FIRST YEAR REVIEW OF BEREADY ENDS SUCCESSFULLY

The consortium partners of BeReady reported successful completion of the planned deliverables and reaching key milestones for the first 18 months of implementation. Hosted by JINAG in Brno, partners met on 1-2 April 2025 for intense discussions and progress review, led by the project officer Guzstav Csomor from JS/MA of the Interreg Danube Program.

During the review period, the 19 partners from 12 countries engaged in monthly online meetings, held over 25 dissemination and knowledge sharing events and meetings, signed local coalition pacts with over 131 members, engaged over 230 participants in workshops and capacity building events. The 10 city partners completed comprehensive Urban Heat Islands risk and vulnerability assessments, with some partners carrying out the analysis for the first time for their cities. We are proud to report reaching out to over 95,000 citizens in the partner countries through online and offline communication activities.

Numbers aside, the first project year was critical for placing the UHI topic in the spotlight of local authorities, climate change experts, citizens, the media. Partners have identified important gaps – institutional, technical, scientific, in the cities’ preparedness and capacity to tackle the vulnerabilities and effects of UHI on the urban infrastructure, urban climate, and most importantly, residents and vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases. To aid city authorities in planning UHI-resilience measures, BeReady has also launched an online platform for UHI risk assessment in four critical areas, i.e., urban climate, exposure of buildings and materials, vulnerable groups, city preparedness and adaptive capacity. The platform is accessible at HERE.

In the following months from July to September partner cities will be launching local pilot projects to address the UHI challenges in their cities, following an urban acupuncture approach; each city will implement a “blue,” “green,” or “white” measure in a selected city zone. City residents and local stakeholders across the partnership are invited to take part in the activities, helping to make their cities more UHI-resilient and ready to adapt to climate changes.

Read more about the project on the website https://be-uhi-ready.net/ and our social media https://www.facebook.com/bereadyprojecteu.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.

OVER 100 PARTICIPANTS FROM 13 COUNTRIES DISCUSSED SOLUTIONS TO COUNTERACT URBAN HEAT ISLANDS

The topic of urban heat islands (UHI) is still not at the top of local and national strategies to tackle climate change, despite the increasing number of days a year with prolonged heat waves. The past year 2024 was declared the hottest year since temperature measurements were made (according to the EU's Copernicus (C3S) Climate Change Service).

The international project BeReady (Strategy for sustainability, preparation and mitigation of urban heat islands), which focuses on assessing the UHI risks and vulnerability of cities in the Danube region, aims to create the capacity of local and regional authorities to use analytical tools to improve their preparedness to deal with the challenges of this phenomenon. The project partners have created an online platform that helps city authorities to assess their risk for UHI against 4 components (urban environment, materials and infrastructure, vulnerable social groups, preparedness of the local administration for UHI prevention and mitigation).

On March 17, 2025, Sofia Development Association, together with partners KVA, Hungary, and ATG, Romania, organized an international webinar with over 100 participants from 13 countries, where they presented the platform and shared key conclusions related to reducing the harmful effects of heat islands. The main challenges facing cities continue to be the lack of systematized data on the urban climate (the available data are not always free, which makes them inaccessible to municipalities with small budgets); the exposure of buildings and infrastructure to high temperatures, as well as the sporadic survey of social groups that are most at risk of heat waves (young children, the elderly, people with chronic diseases, the poor). Insufficient funding for work on the topic has been allocated to the current European programmes and structural funds, and planning for the next period has not yet begun. Cities' efforts to plan targeted actions to counter TRP are hampered by existing practices in public procurement to select a contractor at the lowest cost, which does not allow support for innovation and technologically efficient solutions. The sharing of good practices and continuous exchange between research institutes, business, citizen science and local authorities should be a leading approach in the creation of long-term strategic documents and action plans in this area.

The webinar discussion engaged representatives of EUSDR, DRP, European Committee of the Regions, local and national authorities, NGOs, universities and business organizations.

From the beginning of July this year, pilot projects will be launched in ten Danube region cities to reduce the effects of UHI, applying the blue, green and white urban acupuncture approach.

Be Ready is an INTERREG Danube Region project co-financed by the European Union.