Title: Innovative Solutions to Combat Extreme Heat in Canarian Cities
The Canary Islands are experiencing extreme temperatures due to urban infrastructure and roads with tarmac that absorb heat during the day and release it at night, coupled with a lack of green spaces. Climate shelters are the hope for citizens to stay cool. Therefore, the Canarian Government considers the project by the Environmental Sustainability group of the Canary 2030 Agenda for the design and construction of thermal comfort points against extreme heat waves as “of absolute priority.” When authorized, citizens will use them to seek refuge from high temperatures.
In the mid-20th century, anti-atomic shelters became popular due to fears of the ‘Cold War’ leading to a ‘nuclear winter.’ Climate change has now prompted public authorities to design protection areas for citizens against increasingly intense and prolonged extreme heat waves. As part of one of the five pilot groups of the Canary 2030 Agenda, the Environmental Sustainability group is promoting the design and construction of two climate shelter prototypes as a pilot experience for the subsequent creation of a Climate Shelter Network across the Archipelago, similar to those in Catalonia and the Basque Country. These two prototypes, with a specific allocation in the Canarian budgets for 2025, will be installed in La Isleta (Gran Canaria) and Taco (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) due to being urban areas with a high density of vulnerable populations (children and seniors), lots of cement, and few green spaces.
“Extreme heat has become a serious health concern,” states Noelia Cruz, PhD in Regional Development from the University of La Laguna, who, along with Pedro Dorta, a Geography professor and researcher at ULL, leads the Environmental Sustainability group.
Far from the almost warlike image of a shelter, these climate protection areas are entirely different. There are three different types: external, which is “a square with water points, many trees, and pergolas,” like the Mesa y López avenue in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or the Lake of Plaza de España in the Tenerife. Internal, which is “a publicly air-conditioned building through renewable energies, with adequate thermal insulation and drinking water for people.” And combined, exemplified by “a school or a nursing home where the interior is climate-controlled and the exterior is wooded or shaded.”
Noelia Cruz (ULL): “Extreme heat has become a health problem.”
“In Catalonia, for example, many school playgrounds have been adapted to eliminate concrete courts without shade and turned into orchards,” confirms Cruz.
To understand the ultimate goal of creating the Climate Shelter Network, look at the fact that the three Basque capitals have 245 climate shelters (131 in Bilbao, 89 in Donostia, and 25 in Gasteiz) or that Barcelona has designated 354 libraries, museums, civic centers, parks, and hospitals as thermal comfort points for this summer.
“We have not yet determined the distance from urban centers at which the thermal comfort points should be located, nor are we inventing anything new. We are simply driving a change in planning culture, reversing as much as possible, and laying the groundwork for future constructions. The idea is that small municipalities have at least one shelter and large urban settlements have at least one per neighborhood. We aim to establish a network of ‘green corridors’ that provide shade and the freshness of water jets,” confirms Cruz.
A network of meteorological observatories will be established in the areas with the highest population density.
Once the thermal comfort points are established, citizens can use them when various authorities, both regional and local governments, declare an alert due to prolonged extreme temperatures. The Government’s emergency systems, island councils, or municipalities will prioritize which population segment should seek shelter as a priority, similar to how vaccination parameters were set during the pandemic based on different age groups.
With the aim of designing a Climate Shelter Network that is best suited to the reality of climate change, the Environmental Sustainability group has proposed to the Canarian Government to establish a network of meteorological observatories in the southeastern Gran Canaria and the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife-San Cristóbal de La Laguna. This network could be expanded to the warmer and densely populated urban areas of the islands, providing health information on populations exposed to high temperatures, at least by basic health zones, reflecting data on hospital admissions or care for people affected by heatstroke related to extreme heat episodes.
The group members point out that Santa Cruz de Tenerife “is the Canarian city that has recorded the highest temperatures in the last meteorological period” (1991-2020): 42.6ºC compared to 34.3ºC in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It is also “the city that has reached the
With the highest number of tropical and equatorial nights in Tenerife. Likewise, there is the possibility of establishing another observational network in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, as well as in the inland areas and the East of Gran Canaria and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, being one of the most populous municipalities in the Archipelago. According to the progress of implementation, there is also the possibility of establishing another network in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, as well as in the inland areas and the East of Gran Canaria and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, being one of the most populous municipalities in the Archipelago.
There will be a database on hospital admissions of people affected by heatstroke
As the Environmental Sustainability work team assures, the meteorological network will allow continuous monitoring of atmospheric conditions, providing fundamental data both to declare early warnings and to assist decision-makers not only in determining where to build thermal relief shelters but to decide whether it is necessary to decree that the population should use them to protect themselves from extreme heat.
An all-encompassing meteorological network becomes an essential pillar for climate resilience and the protection of human and environmental well-being in an archipelago increasingly vulnerable to thermal extremes.
The climate shelter project is just one of the five that the president has approved in a meeting held on July 26, where, along with Vice President Alfonso Cabello, the 70 experts who make up the pilot groups of the Canary Islands 2030 Agenda presented their proposals for the advancement of sustainability in the Archipelago, especially in the 48 municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants that make up the ‘Empty Canary Islands’.
Projects and plans ranging from “boosting gastronomy to curb depopulation” (Governance group) to creating Social Innovation Spaces (Social Sustainability group), an “organic waste ecosystem” (Economic Sustainability group) and the House of Common Memory from the Cultural Ecosystem group.
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