Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and longer-lasting, and the Association of South-Western Municipalities now has a practical solution to help its member municipalities protect residents and make urban areas more resilient. Under the HEATSAFE project, ASWM gained access to a Catalogue of Measures for extreme heat prevention and prioritisation, a tool developed by project partner EuroVértice (Spain) that helps municipalities select the measures best suited to their needs. The tool is available in English.
The catalogue brings together 141 measures for preventing and reducing the effects of high temperatures, drawn from good European practices and applicable at local level. Each measure is scored against eight criteria: urban cooling effect, benefits for vulnerable groups, population coverage, cost, funding opportunities, and ease and time of implementation. Municipalities decide which of these criteria matter most to them, and the tool automatically ranks the measures according to the chosen priorities.
The solutions on offer range from preventive measures and rapid-response actions during heatwaves to information and awareness campaigns. They span multiple areas, including urban planning, public buildings, parks and green spaces, transport, education, social services, public health, emergency response and inter-institutional coordination.
The tool runs on four modules: a municipal profile for entering local data, a priorities section for weighting the criteria, a results page ranking the most suitable measures, and a full catalogue functioning as a searchable database by sector, budget and type of action. It is aimed at municipal experts and specialists in urban planning, public health, social services and environmental management, as well as anyone working on climate adaptation.
Through this tool, HEATSAFE supports the Association of South-Western Municipalities and its members in planning and implementing more effective measures to protect people during extreme heat events.
The catalogue is available here (in English): https://heatsafe.interreg-euro-med.eu/what-we-achieve/
