Extreme heat causes health effects ranging from poorer sleep quality to death. In 2023 alone, heat was linked to more than 45,000 deaths in Europe, mostly concentrated in southern countries. But in some cities, actions are already being carried out to protect the population and reduce the number of deaths. The teams at Maldita.es, Mensagem de Lisboa and Slow News have investigated solutions in Barcelona, Milan and Lisbon to this end, which vary from nurturing networks of climate shelters to restoring tree cover in the city
47.690 people died in Europe during 2023 because of heat-related causes. On average, 88 people per million inhabitants lost their lives to heat, but countries like Greece are facing a higher toll, according to a recent study published in Nature Medicine. With 393 deaths per million, Greece tops the list of European nations most affected by this issue, alongside other Southern European countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which also significantly surpass the European average. You can see the death rate of each territory in the graphic below.
Heat deaths are becoming something to worry about. According to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), heat is an escalating health risk driven by growing urbanization and the increasing frequency of extreme temperature events. Heatwaves in particular have become more frequent and serious, with heat-related deaths rising by 30% across almost all of Europe in the last two decades.
When discussing heat-related fatalities, many think first of heat strokes. However, these direct deaths represent only a fraction of the mortality linked to extreme temperatures. The majority are due to indirect effects, which exacerbate pre-existing conditions, particularly cardiac and respiratory diseases. The body’s struggle to regulate its temperature under extreme heat places an additional burden on those with underlying health issues, leading to a spike in deaths.
This paints a more concerning picture for cities like Madrid, Milan and Lisbon, where the urban heat island effect worsens the problem. When they lack green spaces and an excess of concrete, urban areas can be up to 8 ºC warmer at night than their surrounding rural areas. This effect contributes to over 4% of deaths in cities during summer months.
The problem is undeniable, but hope is not lost. This cross-border Solutions Journalism investigation focuses on identifying available preventative measures that can help reduce heat-related deaths, such as mapping or developing a climate shelter network and tree planting. Teams from Maldita.es (Spain), Mensagem de Lisboa (Portugal), and Slow News (Italy) have collaborated to explore how heat is impacting key cities in each country. More importantly, they have examined these solutions and assessed whether they can serve as models for other cities facing this shared threat.
How are heat deaths being fought in European cities
Barcelona has become a leading example in battling heat-related deaths in urban areas through its network of climate shelters. This network, which began in 2020 with 70 locations and has grown to 360 by 2024, offers residents a place to escape from extreme heat by providing cool temperatures, water, and seating. The city's approach has been praised by experts for its clear criteria and strategic use of existing public spaces, including schools, to ensure accessibility. Even though there are challenges still to be addressed, such as limited public knowledge of this network or the closure of many shelters during August, Barcelona’s project has already managed to provide 90% of its population a shelter at less than a 10 minute walk and is inspiring similar initiatives in other cities worldwide.
In Lisbon, the urban heat island effect is well studied and there are several areas of the city where the built environment leads to temperature rises of around 4 ºC in late afternoons. To promote thermal comfort and provide relief on the hottest days, the expert's voice is clear: it is necessary to increase the vegetation cover on the city's streets and promote shade, either by increasing the number of trees or by installing shading structures. Still without an official map of the city's climate shelters and without a concerted strategy for intervention in the public space on the part of the City Council, it has been the citizens who have intervened. In some of the city's neighborhoods, residents have installed swimming pools in their own streets and a city resident has created an interactive map that allows you to find out where the nearest city's climate shelters are.
Milan has an ambitious solution to fight the effects of heat waves on its citizens' daily life. The project ForestaMI, launched by the University Politecnico di Milano in 2018, aims to plant 3 million trees by 2030, in order to increase the canopy cover and mitigate the effect of urban heat islands and the air pollution. Experts widely agree that urban reforestation is an effective long-term solution to fight heat islands and enhance resilience to extreme weather. And paradoxically, the proof that this solution works has already been in the city for two centuries: tree-lined avenues and parks, designed in Milan since 1780, already demonstrate the benefits of greenery, showing temperatures up to 10 °C cooler compared to surrounding areas in the peaks of heat.
Cover picture by: Rita Ansone
Heat-resilient Cities
This report is part of a cross-border investigation carried out by Maldita.es (Spain), Mensagem de Lisboa (Portugal) and Slow News (Italy). The project focuses on analyzing the solutions that three European cities are carrying out to address the effects of increasing temperatures in population health.
In three reports we take an in-depth approach at the shared problem of high temperatures in Madrid, Lisbon and Milan and in three other articles we explore the Barcelona climate shelter network, the mapping of shelters in Lisbon and urban reforestation in Milan. In each article we look into the effectiveness of the solution, its limitations and its replicability in other cities.
This investigation has been developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.
You can read the rest of articles from this investigation here
Heat is killing thousands in Southern European cities: what Barcelona, Milan and Lisbon are doing about it
Extreme heat in Madrid: citizens create their own climate shelters in response to limited institutional action
A place to escape the heat less than 10 minutes away: how Barcelona's network of "climate shelters" was builtPrimera fecha de publicación de este artículo: 23/09/2024
