TECNALIA brings together 200 experts to address global warming in cities

TECNALIA brings together 200 experts to share solutions and address global warming in cities

• Officials from Bilbao and Granollers City Councils will share their experiences on 5th March, from 10am to 12 Noon in a webinar that can be followed
• Understanding where, when and how heat impacts our cities is essential in order to design solutions adapted to each environment
• The TECNALIA research and technological development centre has climate tools and services to identify heat-related risks, providing access to climate data, historical trends, future projections and urban temperature maps

Bilbao. 03 March 2025. Extreme heat is increasing due to climate change, and its impact is amplified in urban areas due to the "heat island" effect, among other factors, i.e. higher temperatures in urban environments with respect to the surrounding rural area.

The Guide to Regionalised Climate Change Scenarios for Spain, prepared by AEMET, highlights that variations in the annual scale of maximum temperatures will tend to rise between 2.0ºC and 6.4ºC in Spain from 2081-2100, depending on the greenhouse gas emissions scenario applied. With regard to the Basque Autonomous Community, this increase in average temperature will oscillate between 0.5ºC and 4.0ºC, depending on the scenario and model used for the projections, whereby it will be more pronounced towards the end of the century.

Therefore, understanding where, when and how heat impacts our cities is essential in order to design solutions adapted to each environment. The TECNALIA research and technological development centre has organised a webinar on Wednesday 5th March, from 10am to 12 Noon to address how to combat this problem of urban overheating, produced as a result of the construction of buildings and impermeable surfaces such as asphalt, pavements and paving, and the limited space for green areas, among other factors. The webinar will also present models and tools to support urban planning for better heat adaptation in the context of climate change.

TECNALIA has climate tools and services to identify heat-related risks, providing access to climate data, historical trends, future projections and urban temperature maps. These tools enable the way in which climate impact is spatially distributed across the city to be visualised, helping to identify high-risk areas that may require urgent intervention. It is also possible to analyse different climate adaptation scenarios and alternatives to identify the most effective solutions, facilitating structural and detailed urban design.

Case Studies

The webinar will analyse two experiences carried out in collaboration with TECNALIA to address this problem: Granollers and Bilbao, where strategies are already being implemented to mitigate extreme heat, as well as the tools used to address urban overheating in this context of climate change. More specifically, analyses with a multi-scale perspective will be addressed, facilitating decision-making, from the analysis of climate projections to the integration of thermal comfort as a variable to be considered in the design of new urban spaces.

Bilbao City Council, in particular, has carried out a diagnosis of urban overheating, analysing the current situation and future climate change scenarios. A thermal map with information is available to prioritise action in the hottest parts of the city, plan the deployment of adaptation solutions and analyse their potential effectiveness. For this purpose, Bilbao is carrying out high-resolution thermal modelling with results of one square metre resolution thanks to its collaboration with TECNALIA.

The main objective of the project is to accurately diagnose the challenge of urban overheating today, as well as under climate change scenarios, to identify priority areas for action, and to have surface-based heat stress assessment indices that enable different adaptation solutions to be compared.

Main results

Some of the main results and conclusions are:

• The identification of the hottest spots in the city and specific areas with the greatest problems associated with overheating, where urban actions should be prioritised.
• Under a scenario of deploying nature-based and green infrastructure solutions (trees, flowerbeds, green roofs, etc.), it would be possible to keep public space in Bilbao free of risks associated with thermal stress, with a percentage of 47.21%, which is very close to the current 48.73%.
• Urban actions, such as the redesign of María Diaz de Haro, which can be optimised, will reduce thermal stress and improve comfort in public spaces of high use by citizens, as corroborated by the thermal modelling studies carried out by Bilbao City Council, also in collaboration with TECNALIA.
• Based on the results obtained, further studies can be carried out to define actions in specific sectors. For example, analysing the customisation of early warnings for heat waves by differentiating thresholds and preventive measures according to the spatial pattern of urban overheating in Bilbao, or improving Bilbao's network of climate shelters by identifying comfortable non-motorised routes.

The webinar programme is available here: Local tools to address urban overheating | Tecnalia