The final countdown of Barcelona's Climate Shelters project - final journal
The project that started with a plan to convert eleven schools to Climate Shelters (“cool islands” within the city web) for heat waves, was eventually integrated to a city-wide plan for transforming school yards and has finally rolled out as one of the main components of the overall policy of the City of Barcelona for adaptation to climate change.
Executive Summary
The Climate Shelters project implemented an innovative adaptation plan to climate change through the conversion of schoolyards to “cool islands” (termed as Climate Shelters) primarily with a mix of blue (water points), green (greenery in the courtyards), grey (interventions on the buildings, more shadow spaces and use of permeable materials) measures. Through the project, eleven schools were converted into Climate Shelters; as a result, 4.500 kids benefited from the pilot investments in their school, 3.213 m2 of schoolyards were transformed, 74 trees were added, and 26 new water points were installed.
During the entire duration of the Climate Shelters project, a wide communication program was deployed to inform the public on the potential and objectives of the project and raise awareness to climate change and its impacts. Under the leadership of the City of Barcelona, all partners (Image 1) delivered valuable tools and products (https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-cities/barcelona-call3) in support of the implementation of the project.
Image 1. The Climate Shelters project partners.
Project’s progress
The project organized its final event on October 6, 2022 (Image 2). During the event the main achievements were discussed, and the evaluation results were presented to the educators from the participating schools.