Ready4Heat at a glance: The Ready4Heat project was funded by the EU as part of the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE program. The Ready4Heat consortium comprised nine partners, including five technical partners addressing environmental, social, governance, and health issues, and four key demonstration cities (pilot projects). The project ran for 36 months, from March 2023 to February 2026, during which action plans for heat and health were developed.
Various pilot actions were carried out: the development of cooling green “urban islands” (Hajdúböszörmény, Hungary), the shading of a playground with a green pergola (Maribor, Slovenia), environmentally friendly cooling of rooms in a retirement home (Weiz, Austria), and the involvement of stakeholders in an urban area to build an active network (Worms, Germany). Furthermore, the partners set up local networks of concerned groups to support each other and tackle the heat problem.
The project also made proven and tested measures, such as heat warning systems, accessible to the cities and helped them adopt these quickly. All pilot cities held kick-off events with their citizens to publicly present their measures. A heat adaptation strategy was developed, knowledge about the existing heat action plan in Worms was shared with the other pilot cities, and heat stress maps were created for each pilot city.