Urban Heat Island Assessment Methodology Workshop in Zenica

The City of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the first of the Be Ready partner cities to organise a local workshop to present to the stakeholders the UHI risk and vulnerability assessment methodology, developed by the project research partners. On September 18, 2024, the Zenica project team and key stakeholders got together to discuss the negative effects of urban heat islands in the city, to try the developed data collection methods, brainstorm what other data sources might be available and distribute tasks for a participative assessment process. The methodology, which includes four different tools with indicators, was presented by Barbara Mušič from the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, a research Be Ready project partner, and the project manager in Zenica Amra Mehmedić.

Representatives of local and national authorities, research and academia, businesses, civil society, and public institutions attended the workshop. Zenica, which joined EBRD Green Cities in September 2018, will be among the first in Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply the methodology and develop its UHI vulnerability assessment. This is the next step in the project.

During the workshop, the stakeholders signed a local coalition pact to establish a cooperation framework and unite in a joint effort to combat the impact of urban heat islands in the framework of the project and beyond.