Methodology Proposal for the Integration of Climate Control Elements in Urban Heritage Environments in Southern Europe

Abstract

The climate situation is already one of the main issues on the global agenda, affecting in a decisive way the habitability of the human species. This situation is particularly sensitive in cities with potentially very hot climates in summer, as rising temperatures are jeopardizing the occupancy and usability of their public spaces, posing a challenge to the health of their inhabitants and a crisis for the viability of the city itself. This situation calls for a strategy to modify the parameters of comfort in these places. In this framework, we find the peculiarity of the historic city and its urban spaces with heritage value. In these areas, climate mitigation measures have to be in a positive dialogue with the heritage values. Ensuring this relationship is something that has so far not been articulated through any procedure. The aim of this research is to propose a methodology to identify the best criteria for intervention in such places, so that strategies aimed at mitigating the climate emergency reinforce the vitality and value of heritage spaces. This framework and objective fit in the case of the city of Seville (Spain), which is used as a reference environment for the assessment, but not as a case study, as no results are obtained at this stage. However, the aim is that the resulting method can be extrapolated to any urban heritage environment and climatic conditions similar to those of southern Europe.