Decryption

Heat waves: the need to change the city

Audio 7:30 p.m.

In Paris, the Trocadéro fountains were stormed during the July 2019 heat wave. AP - Rafael Yaghobzadeh

By: Anne Corpet Follow

3 mins

Thirty-seven departments, or a third of the country, are on red or orange vigilance: the heat wave of unprecedented precocity is growing in France.

And it is in the cities that we suffer the most from the heat.

The world's major cities are responsible for two-thirds of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

But they are also on the front line in the face of climate change.

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The number of people exposed to episodes of extreme heat in urban areas is increasing year by year.

It tripled between 1983 and 2016. According to IPCC reports in 2100, 74% of the world's population will be affected by twenty days of deadly heat waves per year.

In 2050, according to projections, 80% of the world's population will live in cities: urbanization should double by then.

How can we prevent these cities from becoming veritable furnaces?

Can we reduce heat in existing urban centres?

Today Décryptage looks at the need to change the city, if we want to live there without suffocating.

Brigitte Bariol-Mathais

, architect, urban planner, general delegate of the

Planning Agencies (FNAU), she coordinates the contribution of French actors for the

, she directed the book

(Eyrolles ) 

Morgane Colombert

, project director at

, the research and development institute for the city's energy and ecological transition

► To know more about our guests 

Morgane Colombert

is a graduate engineer from the

(EIVP) and a doctor in urban engineering from the University of Paris-Est (recognized in the consideration of the heat island within the various means of intervention on the city).

After several years as a teacher-researcher, she is now project director at Efficacity and associate researcher at

.

She is also a member of the Scientific Council of the City of Paris, of the

-de-France (regional group of expertise on climate change and ecological transition in Île-de-France) and of the

(EMC).

His research and works concern the ability of a territory to adapt to climate change and to face the challenges of energy transition.

It is particularly committed to the subjects of urban comfort and heat islands and to the development of tools and methods for development stakeholders to accelerate the energy and climate transition.

Brigitte Bariol-Mathais

is chief urban architect, she works on urban, metropolitan and regional public policies for planning, urban planning, development and ecological transition.

She is one of the experts of

and participates in European initiatives on the sustainable city.

With the testimony of

, Malian architect and town planner, director of the

, and 

, Togolese architect and anthropologist.

He is the creator of "

", a platform for research and experimentation on questions of architecture and urban planning in Africa.

A program prepared by Anne Corpet, Sigrid Azeroual, Simon Carteret and Françoise Delignon, and Tiffany Menta at the production. 

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• Architecture and urbanism

• Climate change

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