HOPE
Responding to Heatwaves in the Older People Ecosystem
Meso
Main result
Application
Title
Paris blue and green infrastructure
Date 2018
Objectives
The aim of this good practice is to create cool spaces where citizens can seek refuge from the heat of the Summer.
Location /geographical coverage
Paris, France
Organisation responsible for good practice
The city of Paris, together with the Agence Parisienne du Climat, the EIVP (École des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris) and the APUR (Atelier parisien d'urbanisme) and EXTREMA (project using real-time satellite data, along with other model and city-specific data to estimate the temperature, humidity, and discomfort index for every square kilometre in the city) .
Stakeholders and partners
The beneficiary is the global population- citizens- tourists.
Partners of EXTREMA: National Observatory of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of Oulu, Aratos System, AnySolution S.L, City of Athens, Law and Internet Foundation.
Short summary
The city of Paris has developed a mapping app EXTREMA to guide residents to cool “islands” or spaces.
The network of cool islands is composed by more than 800 spaces, from parks and forests to swimming pools and museums, where residents and visitors can take a break from the city’s summer heat. The islands are linked by naturally cool
walkways. Paris’ goal is that all residents should be able to walk to a cool island or walkway within seven minutes.
As a part of the plan, 1,200 drinking fountains have been installed in the city allowing residents to keep cool for free in the summer heat and reducing the use of plastic water bottles.
Impact
This practice seems to be quite successful as an indicator during the first year of use of the app (2018), EXTREMA has been downloaded 6,000 times.
Innovation
While creating an app is not the answer to the global problem, this digital tool comes as a smart support and turns to be great help for city residents and tourists. In this case, the EXTREMA app allows citizens thanks to an interactive map to be updated about the location and opening hours of cool spaces, about temperatures and heat risks.
Lessons learned
The benefits are:
• Social: More than 7,000 Parisians have been identified as vulnerable during
times of extreme heat, and this project aims to inform those residents of
heat risks, and how and where to cool off.
• Health: With an estimated 1,500 deaths in France as a result the 2019 heat
wave, becoming more resilient to such events is a critical health issue for
Paris officials. The cool islands can help reduce the risk of heat-related
illnesses amongst the population.
• Economic: Heat waves can significantly reduce economic productivity, by
almost a third in some cases, but by creating a city more resilient to summer
heat, Paris is mitigating against the economic damage caused by heat
waves.
• Environmental: By creating more green and blue spaces in the city, Paris is
boosting biodiversity as well as reducing the impacts of air pollution and
sequestering carbon. Additionally, encouraging residents to spend more
time in these places will increase the value Parisians attach to nature.
Sustainability
• Keeping and increasing the number of cool islands
They are cool open places where citizens are welcome to rest, a source of
refreshment in hot weather. More than 800 cool islands have been identified in 2018 as accessible during the day and 150 at night.
For summer 2019, more than 100 islands have been added.
• Keeping and increasing the number of cool trails
As for the coolness routes in Paris, they are similar to pedestrian routes that
link coolness islands in hot or scorching periods. These routes are:
- planted with trees and/or vegetation.
- shaded by trees, buildings, shady areas.
- naturally cool underground passages including pedestrian tunnels.
- in the direct vicinity of water areas including the banks of the Seine,
canals, and lakes.
- with materials that store little or no heat: light colours, specific
thermal properties, permeable...
• Informing and updating the app.
Replicability and/or up-scaling
This good practice is replicable in its concept and is above all useful at local level it just needs to be adapted with the information related to any city or community.
It is a rather simple project with great benefits. Indeed, you take advantage of
existing spaces (gardens, parks, swimming pools, aquatic centres, outdoor baths,
establishments open to the public and naturally cool such as churches, museums and libraries, naturally cool underground spaces including pedestrian tunnels) and make them available.
In addition, in this project the buildings and spaces have been adapted for example with materials that store little or no heat: light colours, specific thermal properties etc.
Contact details
https://www.paris.fr/pages/contact-232
Related Web site(s)
Related resources that have been developed
https://extrema-global.com/index.html