Chisinau City Hall informs that the General Direction of Architecture, Urbanism and Land Relations is implementing the Be Ready Project, co-financed by the European Union within the Interreg Danube Region Program 2021-2027.

The Be Ready project (UrBan Heat Islands REsilience, prepAreDness and mitigation strategy) addresses climate change capacities in the Danube Region, taking into account ecosystem-based approaches. 

The common challenge to be addressed is urban heat islands (UHI). The recent unprecedented recent heat waves demonstrate the acute need to strengthen societal preparedness and adaptive capacity to cope with climate change impacts and foster resilience at city level.

Be Ready aims to :

- provide local and regional authorities with research, evaluation and operational tools to better understand the UHI, its drivers and impacts;

- create, test and validate jointly developed solutions to mitigate the effects of UHI in cities;

- support partner cities in developing and adopting action plans for increased resilience to UHI effects with specific actions to promote green, blue or white measures.

Main project outputs include jointly developed and implemented methodologies and toolkits for UHI risk assessment, data analysis and modeling at city level; co-designed solutions to address UHI, tested and peer-reviewed in the urban environment of 12 pilot cities; A joint strategy for enhancing climate change preparedness and resilience targeting local and regional authorities in the Danube region; transformative action plans and strategic insights for participating partners; policy recommendations; an online course-based training program for partners; awareness campaigns in 12 countries over a 30-month period.

The Be Ready project uses the ClimateSandbox approach to help cities develop and implement climate innovations, both in technology and services, as well as in urban policy and planning. Using the Climate Sandbox digital tool, the project aims to show the benefits of solutions that emphasize the environment, simplicity and aesthetics, helping to generate value and involve the community in the co-design process from conception and development to implementation.

Implementation period: January 1, 2024 - June 30, 2026.

Project website: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/be-ready