Rising temperatures, heat waves, heavy rainfall, flooding, and cost erosion are some of the problems currently shared by Mediterranean cities. For this reason, some fifteen experts from cities that are part of the MedCities network have shared the solutions they are implementing in their cities to adapt to the climate crisis.
During the workshop ‘Metropolitan initiatives to adapt to climate change in the Mediterranean’, which took place on 18 and 19 September at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), the experts shared their experiences around four round tables. Increasing coastal resilience to climate change and the restoration of ecosystems, urban planning in cities, sustainable mobility, and green and key infrastructures were the central themes of this event organised by MedCities, in collaboration with and with funding from the AMB.

‘Climate change can also be an opportunity to build more liveable cities’, said Elisenda Alemany, Vice-president of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, highlighting the importance and the opportunity to enjoy a space for exchange between experts from cities to rethink and imagine these new metropolitan areas and metropolis.

The reconstruction of dunes on the metropolitan coast of Barcelona (Catalonia), the use of water and nature to reduce the heatwave effect in Rome (Italy), the creation of the first ‘mobility island’ in Sarajevo (Bosnia), the implementation of a free public transport strategy in Montpellier (France), the improvement of coastal resilience in Mersin (Turkey), the creation of a network of climate shelters in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (Catalonia), the improvement of coastal resilience in Mersin (Turkey), the creation of the first ‘mobility island’ in Sarajevo (Bosnia), the creation of the first ‘mobility island’ in Sarajevo (Bosnia), the implementation of a free public transport strategy in Montpellier (France), the improvement of coastal resilience in Mersin (Turkey), the network of climate shelters in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (Catalonia) and energy efficiency in public buildings in Irbid (Jordan) are some of the responses of Mediterranean cities to meet these challenges.

For this reason, Josep Canals, Secretary General of MedCities, highlighted the event as an example of what MedCities is: ‘a platform for different members of the network to share experiences and learn from each other; from mistakes and also from errors, because what happens on one side affects the other. We are all part of the same sea and more things unite the political leaders of the cities than what separates them’.

Rome is preparing for the future
Forecasts point to a rise in temperature and an increase in heat waves in the coming decades in Rome (Italy) and its metropolitan area, where last January an adaptation strategy was presented to identify objectives and measures to prepare the Italian capital for current and future impacts during the period 2036-2065.

‘There are four main priorities: the intensity of the floods, bearing in mind that there are neighborhoods built in an area where 150. 000 people could be impacted by floods, the change in water management, health – since we have identified neighborhoods where there are more deaths and hospitalizations – and we also have the problem of the coast’, explained Edoardo Zanchini, Head of the Climate Office of the City of Rome (Italy).

The long periods of drought are leading to accelerated measures for water reduction, storage, and reuse in the Italian capital and its metropolitan area, which has a population of around 3 million people. ‘A new approach to water reuse is needed. We have aqueducts that come from the Romans, but we cannot use this water to irrigate plants, because currently the regenerated water goes to the sea’, he lamented.

For this reason, it is planned to create interconnections between non-potable aqueducts and to increase intervention in wastewater plants to use clean water for agriculture, urban and industrial needs and to reduce water consumption, among other measures that also include the creation of parks and nature-based solutions. In this sense, by 2026, it is planned to plant 600,000 trees, five parks along the Tiber river, and 16 new parks to reduce the city’s temperature.

‘We are working differently in public spaces. We know that we have to change our approach if we want to reduce the impact on health. We will start working in 2024 and 2025 with two neighborhoods in the city center, where there is more economic activity because we want to understand these two areas and then see how we do it in the rest of the city,’ he said.

Montpeller aposta del transport

Transport is one of the sectors that produces the most carbon dioxide emissions, one of the gases behind global warming. A free transport initiative has been implemented to improve citizens’ mobility and air quality in the Montpellier metropolitan area, which is affected by the traffic of two motorways. ‘It was a demand of the 400,000 inhabitants (out of 500,000 inhabitants)’, explained Thibaut Vigouroux, Head of the “Free Public Transport” Project of the Montpellier Metropolitan Area‘s Mobility Department.

The initiative, which gives free access ‘to residents, tourists have to pay’, started with a first phase during the weekends in July 2020 and was fully implemented in December last year. Although it has to cope with an economic loss of 30 million euros, ‘we are working to have more sources of income, but for the moment we are based on taxes on companies that set up in the city’, Vigouroux explained.

In addition to working to extend free transport to people from outside the Montpellier metropolitan area, this commitment to transport is complemented by the creation of a new tramway and the purchase of new buses and trams. It’s ‘a political decision’ within the framework of a global mobility strategy. ‘It has been the most important policy of this mandate,’ he said, stressing the improvement in air quality and the reduction of carbon emissions since its implementation.

A look at the Barcelona metropolitan area

In the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, improving health involves creating low-emission zones. Mobility is also one of the areas in which the AMB works and is carried out through various actions including the promotion of cycling, a metropolitan network of cycle lanes, accessibility of public transport, and shared mobility.
Even though since 2011, the public administration has been working to combat the effects of climate change, in 2018 it incorporated its road map (‘Pla Clima i Energia 2030’).
‘Climate change has brought to light the regression of beaches and the accelerated increase in temperature of between 1.5 and 4 degrees’, warned Ramón Torra, Manager of the AMB, lamenting the reduction of a quarter of the water resources of the Ter-Llobregat system. For this reason, he pointed to the need for alternative resources such as ‘wastewater that can be reincorporated into urban waste and industrial uses’.

Other experiences presented by MedCities member cities included presentations from Ancona (Italy) on the ‘urban forest contract’ on the Adriatic coast to increase urban greenery and reduce the impact of the heatwave. Tirana (Albania) talked about initiatives on urban resilience to protect the environment and Irbid presented initiatives on net energy in public buildings. On the other hand, València explained the project they have underway for ‘green’ cities, starting in schools with the participation of the educational community.

The participants of the workshop ‘Metropolitan initiatives to adapt to climate change in the Mediterranean’, led by AMB technicians, were able to learn first-hand about this initiative to regenerate and reuse wastewater in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, as part of the strategy to combat and prevent critical episodes of initial water shortage or drought, as well as the projects carried out for the recovery and environmental protection of the Llobregat river – which has been greatly modified over the years – based on three axes: ecological, accessibility and social strategy, and which allow citizens to use, on foot or by bicycle, paths around the river that lead to the sea and more than 25km inland.

These activities contribute to the project ‘Make a move for adaptation to climate change’, in which the Metropolitan Municipality of Mersin (Turkey) is developing its Action Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, with the support of the European Union. ‘A recent study indicates that we account for 17% of carbon dioxide emissions’, explained Büllet Halisdemir, Head of the Department of Environmental Protection and Control of this Turkish city, characterised by its agricultural and tourist activity.

The creation of green areas, the use of fertilisers and the promotion of renewable energies are some of the actions being carried out, among the more than 3,000 pilot projects underway. ‘We have a prevention system for farmers with which we inform them about droughts in order to be more efficient with our crops,’ said Halisdemir, stressing the participation of the private sector and the public in these actions.

‘We have the challenge of raising awareness and reaching out to the entire population of the Mediterranean basin and this is what gives meaning to our daily work: We are and we want to continue to be a platform of reference to the three rivers of the basin so that the municipalities can equip themselves with technical training and be able to apply their projects; in particular the one that concerns them all: their resilience and adaptation to climate change ’, concluded Josep Canals, Secretary General of MedCities.