Adaptation to climate change: Cartoviz and other tools to advise the Paris region’s local authorities

The effects of climate change are already visible in the Paris Region: droughts, heatwaves, flooding, shrinking and swelling of the clay… Local and regional authorities need to integrate these issues into their public action, with the participation of local stakeholders to ensure a shared vision of vulnerabilities and the solutions to be deployed.

Since 2020, IPR has developed a GIS tool named Cartoviz on urban heat islands that facilitates the territorial diagnosis. IPR has carried out a detailed characterisation of the urban and rural areas of the region to determine their international Local Climate Zone (LCZ): dense trees, scattered trees, bush, low plants, bare rock or paved, bare soil or sand, water, compact high-rised, compact midrise, compact low-rise, open high-rise, open midrise, open low-rise, lightweight low-rise, large low-rise, sparsely built, heavy industries.

The tool enables professionals to measure the impact of climate change on the urban morphology of each building block in the Paris Region. It will be used to provide an overview and some recommendations to local authorities for their local climate, air and energy masterplan (PCAET) such as:

• Increase plant cover (on the ground, on buildings and on flat roofs);

• Increase water surfaces (limit soil sealing, develop cooling areas like aquatic areas, pools, fountains);

• Increasing the shaded area and/or solar gain (more trees for more shade, more solar protection for buildings etc.)

• Use materials with more suitable thermal and optical properties (light colour for soil and pavements, light colour for roofs, insulation of buildings and materials to increase inertia of materials)

• Reducing human activities heat sources;

• Adapting the ventilation of the blocks.

The Paris Region Institute and its different departments deploy their know-how on climate change at local and regional level through three axes:

1. Raising skills and awareness events;

2. Technical studies;

3. Implementation of the regional strategy.

Cartoviz is playing a role in each area as a pedagogical tool for local authorities, a decision-making tool for vulnerability assessments studies and a tool for disseminating knowledge.

This best practice is extracted from our publication ‘Sustainable Regions in Action‘. Discover more best practices here!