Heatwave Action Plan Protects Vulnerable Residents

Summary

"Athens’ Heat­wave Ac­tion Plan was launched in 2016, aim­ing to pro­tect the city’s most at-risk res­id­ents, in­clud­ing the eld­erly, those with car­di­ovas­cu­lar or res­pir­at­ory con­di­tions, in­fants, people with obesity prob­lems, and en­ergy poverty stricken house­holds from the ad­verse health threats of heat­waves. Through the co­ordin­a­tion of mu­ni­cipal so­cial ser­vices, the city is in­sti­tut­ing pro­jects such as in­creas­ing green areas, ex­pand­ing the use of cool ma­ter­i­als, in­creas­ing shade op­tions, and pro­mot­ing “cool­ing routes” in parts of the city where the urban heat is­land ef­fect is more in­tense, en­sur­ing that vul­ner­able res­id­ents are pro­tec­ted.

Un­der a stra­tegic part­ner­ship between the city and the Na­tional Ob­ser­vat­ory of Athens, a di­gital heat­wave warn­ing mech­an­ism is now avail­able to res­id­ents via either per­sonal com­puters or smart­phones. The mech­an­ism provides valu­able in­form­a­tion such as the cur­rent tem­per­at­ure in the user’s loc­a­tion, whether or not they are at risk de­pend­ing on their age and med­ical con­di­tion, as well as how to reach a cool­ing spot in case they are in­deed at risk."

Quote from: http://solutions.sustainia.me/solutions/heatwave-action-plan-protects-vulnerable-residents/