BeReady

Which challenges does the project BeReady target?

The project BeReady (UrBan hEat islands REsilience, prepAreDness and mitigation strategy) addresses the climate change capacities in the Danube Region taking into account ecosystem-based approaches. The common challenge to be tackled is urban heat islands (UHI). The recent unprecedented heat waves demonstrate the acute need to strengthen the preparedness and adaptive capacity of the society to cope with impacts of climate change and foster resilience at city level.

Which objectives has the project BeReady?

BeReady aims to:

• provide local and regional authorities with research, assessment and operational instruments to better understand UHI, its drivers, and effects;
• co-create, test, and validate jointly developed solutions to mitigate the UHI effects in cities;
• support partner cities to develop and adopt action plans for increased resilience to UHI effects with specific actions to promote green, blue, or white measures.

The novel approach to be taken by the project – “green acupuncture” - will allow the partners, both cities and knowledge partners, to take targeted, small but powerful, context-based measures to deal with UHI in critical urban areas. City pilots will test solutions in three areas: “green acupuncture” (vegetation-based interventions); “white acupuncture” (based on innovative surfaces and materials); and “blue acupuncture” (novel uses of water resources). The project main outputs include jointly developed and implemented methodologies and toolkits for UHI risk assessment, data analysis and modelling at city level; co- designed solutions for tackling UHI, tested and peer reviewed in urban environment by 12 pilot cities; a common strategy for improving the climate change preparedness and resilience aimed at local and regional authorities in the Danube region; action plans and transformative strategic outlooks for the participating partners; policy recommendations; a virtual training program with SPOCs; awareness campaigns in 12 countries over the 30-month period. Key for BeReady is the ClimateSandbox approach that will support participating cities to define and deploy climate-oriented innovations – both on the technological and service side (i.e. content) and on the policy, administrative and spatial planning side (i.e. enabling conditions), through the innovative digital Climate Sandbox Technological and Societal Readiness Tool. The project's ambition is to showcase to decision-makers and other stakeholders across Europe the benefits of adopting solutions in which the environment, simplicity, and aesthetics play a key role as value-generating agents as well as community engagement drivers, throughout the co-design process, acting both at levels of solution definition, development, and deployment.

The expected outputs of the BeReady project include:

Jointly developed and implemented methodologies and toolkits for UHI risk assessment, data analysis, and modeling.

Co-designed solutions for tackling UHI, tested and peer-reviewed in urban environments by 12 pilot cities.

A common strategy for improving climate change preparedness and resilience in the Danube region.

Action plans and transformative strategic outlooks for participating partners.

Policy recommendations.

A virtual training program with Single Points of Contact (SPOCs).

Awareness campaigns in 12 countries over a 30-month period.

Implementation period: January 1, 2024 – June 30, 2026

Partners:

Sofia Development Association, Bulgaria – Lead Partner
DEX Innovation center, Czech Republic
Association Tehnopol of Galati, Romania
Chișinău Town Hall, Moldova
Municipality of Galați, Romania
Science and Technology Park Nis, Serbia
City of Nis, Serbia
City of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenia
Capital City Podgorica, Montenegro
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
Municipality of Ratiboř, Czech Republic
South Moravian agency for public innovation JINAG, Czech Republic
City of Kranj, Slovenia
Association Bureau for Integration and Social Innovations, Bulgaria
Development agency North Ltd., Croatia
Municipality of Hévíz, Hungary
Small Business Development Foundation of Kisalföld, Hungary

BeReady is an Interreg Danube Region Programme project co-funded by the European Union.

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