Transforming Heat Islands into Neat Islands

Abstract

The resilience of cities has become an important topic to be considered by authorities in planning (MYRIVILI 2017, oral). Nowadays, many cities need to face various problems caused by environment, such as earthquakes, heat islands or floods (ibid.). The case study takes place in the centre of the city of Athens, to which the main emphasis has been paid during the research. This place also has to fight the shock of heat waves that occur during summer seasons on a daily basis (ibid.). It is not only a challenge for planning authorities, but most importantly it affects people who live in such areas. Therefore, the heat waves have significant impact on Athens’ neighbourhoods, as its occurrence makes those areas barely liveable for people (PAPAIOANNOU 2017, oral). It is mainly burdensome for the inhabitants of such district, where the surrounding areas have not been improved in ages, have not followed the newest and more socially friendly standards, which could reduce heat islands and therefore provide inhabitants with more liveable places to live in, like the researched one (ibid.). The proposal of transforming the heat islands to neat islands in the central district of Athens focuses on the creation of new green and clean places, where people could gather together, but at the same time, these areas would be efficiently reducing the phenomenon of heat islands.