Heat stress strategy

The province of Utrecht aims to become the “first cool region in Europe”. This means: expediting the strategy to reduce heat stress. This is achieved by adapting policy and setting down agreements with parties active in the fields of urbanisation, real estate development, climate adaptive constructions (green rooftops), and the construction of green-blue schoolyards.

Project objective

The goal is to integrate and embed climate adaptation in provincial policy, focusing additional attention on reducing heat stress.

Implementation

Ways to integrate climate adaptation are presented in demonstration projects. The projects focus on three areas:

  • Green-blue schoolyards. Initially, three pilot projects will be launched, which will subsequently be scaled up to other secondary schools and/or sports fields and accommodations;
  • Green rooftops. This involves setting up a service desk for sustainable rooftops (for individual residents and for businesses); lobbying with regional governments and developers on the basis of the “Multifunctional Roofs Manifest”; boosting iconic projects; and setting up a regional fund for multifunctional rooftops;
  • Developing ten local heat plans or heat policy plans.

In addition, the participants are working on an innovative policy monitoring system to embed climate adaptation in provincial spatial planning policy, and on a strategic publicity plan focused on disseminating the strategy to reduce heat stress.

Results

  • Since 2022, some thirty school playgrounds in the province of Utrecht have been greened, some of which using a LIFE-IP grant. Examples of primary schools that have greened their school playgrounds are KBS het Schateiland in Utrecht, De Wilgenhoek in Leerdam, KBS Vroonestein in Nieuwegein and Montessorischool in Rhenen. The province is using the Utrecht school playgrounds website to promote greening among schools.
  • A local heat plan involves a more detailed elaboration of the National Heat Plan. The province of Utrecht aims for every Utrecht municipality to formulate a local heat plan. Under the LIFE-IP Climate Adaptation programme, seven municipalities have already drafted a heat plan 1.0: Bunschoten, De Ronde Venen, Houten, IJsselstein, Montfoort, Nieuwegein, and Utrecht. The document entitled “Evaluatie Utrechtse Hitteplannen (pdf, 788 kB)“ [Evaluation of Utrecht heat plans] outlines the lessons to be learned from the development of these seven heat plans. Other municipalities can use these lessons when drawing up their local heat plans.
  • Along with a range of partners, the province of Utrecht has approached municipalities, construction companies, developers, regional water authorities and other stakeholders to set down as many agreements as possible on the climate-resilient planning of the built environment, pertaining to both new and existing developments. The agreements also feature details on reducing heat stress. The Declaration of Intent regarding Climate-adaptive Construction (pdf, 5.3 MB) was signed by 20 parties on 31 December 2021.