On July 9, 2024, the International Workshop was held in Vienna at the BOKU Campus Muthgasse. The event was organized as part of the BeReady project (DRP0200793) “UrBan heat islands REsilience, prepAreDness and mitigation strategy”. The workshop was attended by representatives of 16 project partners (Fig. 1, 2). The key topic of the workshop was the presentation of the new UHI risk assessment methodology and four self-assessment tools. Assoc. Prof. Eva Pauditšová from Institute of Management, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Fig. 3) presented Tool 4 (Tool 1 – Barbara Mušič, UIRS, Ljubljana; Tool 2 – Milan Krstev, NTP Nis; Tool 3 – Bernhard Pucher, BOKU Vienna). After the presentation of the four proposed tools for local municipalities the participants completed the so-called World Café – communication tool for questions and answers with the project partners. Guided discussion in group 4 was led by Professor Maroš Finka (STU in Bratislava). We discussed the applications and possibilities of using the proposed tools of the methodology. The discussions in the working groups (Fig. 4) were fruitful, informative and very inspiring.

As part of the workshop, the process of how municipalities should apply the methodology compiled by the project’s scientific partners and how they should develop an assessment reports using the proposed 4 tools was also presented.

After the workshop, the scientific council met. We discussed about the next steps within the planned tasks of the project.

On July 10, 2024, the Be Ready consortium joined the proBach project at the Vienna Klima Biennale (Fig. 5). Senior scientist Bernhard Pucher from BOKU University presented using water resources through blue and green infrastructures to tackle UHI. This visit helped the project partners gain new insights for upcoming UHI risk assessments and pilots.

Fig.1: Members of BeReady project team in Vienna, International Workshop, 9th July 2024 (author: Guenter Langergraben)

Fig. 2: Participants of the International Workshop in Vienna, 9th July 2024 (author: Denitsa Lozanova)

Fig. 3: The atmosphere of an International workshop, 9th July, 2024, Vienna (author: Eva Pauditsova and Denitsa Lozanova)

Fig. 4: World café – working in groups, 9th July, 2024 (author: Eva Pauditsova and Denitsa Lozanova)

Fig. 5: Project consortium at the Vienna Klima Biennale, 10th July, 2024 (author: Guenter Langergraben)