More than 90% of the cases of patients treated for heat stroke that have been registered during 15 years at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona (from 2003 to 2017) corresponded to people with some chronic disease, either cardiovascular or psychiatric or neurological, according to the compilation made by Antonia Vázquez, specialist in intensive care medicine. Experts warn about the risks associated with the heat in people with fragile health who die in the summer.
The number of deaths due to heat stroke is statistically insignificant in terms of mortality or morbidity. But the number of deaths attributable to excess heat in Spain in the summer of 2022 (from June 1 to September 30, 2022) was estimated at 4,744 (calculation according to thresholds based on epidemiological risks) , according to the Daily Mortality Surveillance system, managed by the National Epidemiology Center (MoMo report). However, these data have been questioned because the risk allocation algorithm used to obtain these figures "is out of date", as Cristina Linares, co-director of the reference unit on Climate Change, explains to La Vanguardia , Health and Urban Environment of the Carlos III Institute of Health. For this reason, this expert proposes that the number of incomes should also be quantified, which would give a true dimension to the problem, since cases are moving towards age groups that were not traditionally affected. Bicycle delivery workers, temporary installation assemblers, garbage collectors, storage personnel and breakdown repairers are among the most exposed groups.
The perception that we are in an increasingly warmer urban environment is confirmed by meteorological data. The year 2022 was the hottest year recorded in Spain since records began (with series dating back to 1961), and 2023 was the second hottest. Similarly, the summer of 2022 was also the warmest, while the summer of 2023 was ranked third in this ranking. If the warming projections hold, summers like those of 2022 and 2023 will be the norm on the future horizon, not an extraordinary occurrence.
And in this context, reflection is obvious. How should cities adapt to climate change? The question is pertinent because warming is exacerbated by the heat island conditions imposed by the asphalt, engine combustion and other sources of heat emanating from machines or buildings. City streets are systematically covered with black asphalt, which causes heat absorption to be released into the atmosphere at night.
To alleviate climate change, cities must be renaturalized, but not only with green spaces and gardens, but with areas populated by trees. Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban and Territorial Ecology Foundation, states that the priority must be to mitigate the high temperatures caused by the urban heat island effect. For this reason, he advocates creating green carpets both on the urban surface, with trees that provide shade, and at height, that is, on built-up roofs. In this scheme of solutions, trees are a fundamental instrument. The transpiration of water through the leaves has a cooling effect and, combined with the shade, can lower the temperature by 2ºC, 3ºC or even 4ºC.
"The regeneration of cities must focus on trees, and not so much on green areas, because it is the trees that protect the pavements in the cities and defend us from the heat island effect", corroborates Manuel Herrero, president of the Union of Urban Architects Associations of Spain.
The ideal of "proximity urbanism" is also defended by Carlos Moreno, creator of the 15-minute city concept. Moreno proposes to organize the functioning of the city, so that the citizens can cover their basic needs when going to work, school, and places of leisure within a short radius. In this way, not only is the need to take the car avoided, but the citizen, mitigating pollution, becomes an active agent in favor of healthy practices: an ally of an urban configuration which also allows you to have quality time and spaces that invite you to stroll, walk and exercise.
In this line are the solutions proposed by Salvador Rueda, promoter of super-blocks in Spain, by which by freeing up 70% of the surface intended for urban traffic, a 15% reduction in traffic is achieved. At the same time, road space is gained for urban greenery and adaptation to climate change while, at the same time, the dysfunctions of our cities are corrected, since space is given to pedestrians.
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