Goals & Targets Highlighted by Eugenia

The Freetown Heat Action Plan has setout several objectives to make Freetown residents aware of the risks of heat,establish high-resolution heat monitoring and personalized warning systems, andincrease the ability of vulnerable groups to respond to extreme heat. By 2030,the plan aims to have 80% of Freetown's population fully aware of the risks ofheat and effective responses.

To achieve this, the plan aims toestablish a comprehensive heat mapping baseline system or dataset by 2025,which will involve overlaying citizen science with several layers of scientificheat mapping and datasets such as health, vulnerability, and urban heat islandto understand heat dynamics and vulnerability levels across Freetown. By 2026,the plan aims to set up heat thresholds with personalized physical exertionrecommendations and an early warning system.

To increase resilience to heat impactsin heat island areas, the plan aims to use heat-sensitive infrastructure by2023, establish ten cooling corridors by 2026, and 24 cooling corridors by2030. Additionally, the plan aims to implement suitable measures targeting atleast 50% of the informal settlements to improve their ability to adapt toextreme heat by 2030.

Four groups of participants fromvarious backgrounds, including climate experts, community members, andorganizations, were divided into breakout sessions led by facilitators todetermine activities for meeting the objectives of the Freetown Heat Action Plan.Dr. Ye Tao led Group 3, which focused on increasing resilience to heat impactsin heat island areas. They discussed strategies to achieve the objectives ofestablishing cooling corridors and implementing measures to improve the abilityof informal settlements to adapt to extreme heat by 2023 and 2030,respectively. The second session evaluated the proposed activities, identifiedpotential risks, and discussed strategies to mitigate these risks.

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