Workshop on Urban Heat Islands in Kranj: Insights from the BeReady Project

On October 2, 2024, a local workshop in Kranj, Slovenia, delved into methodological approaches to tackling urban heat islands (UHI). Kranj, one of the 12 pilot cities involved in the BeReady project, hosted the event to engage stakeholders in addressing this critical climate adaptation challenge. Over 20 representatives from national and local authorities, research organizations, NGOs, and businesses participated in the discussions.

The morning session began with the local project team presenting the first steps and impacts of the project. The presentation highlighted the initial results from deploying a thermal camera to study heat distribution in urban areas. The session also featured Barbara Mušič from the Urbanistični inštitut Republike Slovenije, one of the project’s scientific partners, who presented the BeReady vulnerability and risk assessment methodology. Discussions focused on the four areas outlined for UHI risk assessment in the methodology, namely, buildings and exposure, materials and surfaces, vulnerability groups, preparedness and adaptive capacity of cities to tackle UHI.

Stakeholders from the research and business sectors shared their perspectives on facing adaptation to climate changes and UHI especially. The experts emphasized the need for reliable data and practical insights, drawn from both research and field studies, which will serve in the analysis of selected locations in the city. 

Workshop participants also stressed the interdisciplinary nature of UHI challenges, which requires input from different fields of expertise. Participants agreed that urban heat islands are a current, complex, and pressing issue that can be successfully addressed only through a broad collaboration of public and private actors, citizens and civil society. This approach ensures a transparent data-driven decision-making process and social acceptance of the proposed solution to mitigate the effects of UHI.

To confirm their commitment to collaborate, during the workshop ten local stakeholders signed a Local Coalition Pact. The pact is an important and concrete step toward coordinated action, demonstrating the potential of the BeReady project to foster community engagement and implementation of local needs-based solutions.