Beating Urban Heat Islands with Data

BeatTheHeat is a cross-border European data space connecting Cartagena, Naples and Taranto to tackle Urban Heat Islands — combining satellite data, IoT sensors, and AI services to drive Green Deal urban planning.

Health Impact Assessment
UHI & Thermal Comfort
Shadow & Pollution Maps
IoT Sensor Network
Earth Observation (Satellite)
City Data Platforms

The Project

BeatTheHeat addresses the growing challenge of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) in Mediterranean cities. Led by Cartagena City Council and co-funded by the Digital Europe Programme, it builds a European cross-domain data space to support Green Deal urban planning and public health.

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Thermal Intelligence

Combines satellite imagery, IoT sensors and urban biodiversity data to generate thermal comfort maps, shadow projections and UHI assessments for city managers.

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Data Sovereignty

Participants retain full control over their data. Governed by the DS4SSCC blueprint, FIWARE/NGSI-LD standards, and FAIR principles.

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Ethical AI Services

AI-driven services for UHI analysis, pollution dispersion, and health impact assessment — aligned with EU values and the Green Deal objectives.

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Green Deal Aligned

Supports Low Emission Zones, urban biodiversity, sustainable mobility and climate-neutral city planning across three Mediterranean pilot cities.

Project objectives

  • Enable secure, interoperable data exchange between cities, SMEs and research organisations across borders.
  • Generate high-value datasets: thermal comfort maps, shadow maps, UHI maps, pollution maps, and health impact metrics.
  • Validate the DS4SSCC data space blueprint in real urban environments across Spain and Italy.
  • Contribute to European Green Deal goals by informing urban planning decisions with data-driven insights.

Use Cases

Five high-value data services for city managers across Cartagena, Naples and Taranto.

01

Thermal Comfort Maps

Assess urban thermal comfort by integrating Earth Observation data, IoT sensor inputs, and the effects of urban plant biodiversity.

02

Shadow Maps

Estimate shadow projections generated by buildings and vegetation to guide outdoor planning and green infrastructure design.

03

Urban Heat Island Maps

Quantify heat retention by urban surfaces and night-time temperature impact using satellite data and in-situ IoT sensors.

04

Pollution Maps

Integrate sensor data and urban vegetation to model pollution dispersion through street canyon models.

05

Health Impact Assessment

HEAT (Health Economic Assessment Tool) metrics to evaluate the health benefits of urban thermal comfort improvements.

Ecosystem

A collaborative cross-border consortium of cities, technology SMEs and EU initiatives.

Pilot Cities

Cartagena (Spain) Naples (Italy) Taranto (Italy)

Technology Partners

Libelium Latitudo 40 EverTree MedITech 4.0

EU Alignment

DS4SSCC Green Deal FIWARE DOME Living-in.EU OASC

Data Catalog

Explore datasets published by all data space participants, automatically synchronised from their EDC connectors.

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Federated datasets

Browse the DCAT catalogs of all connectors in the data space from a single access point in real time.

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Continuous sync

Catalogs are updated automatically every 30 seconds via the DSP (Dataspace Protocol).

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Search and detail

Filter by name, provider or identifier. View metadata, distributions and policies for each dataset.

Explore the catalog

Request Access

Join the BeatTheHeat data space. Fill in the form and you will receive access credentials for your EDC connector.

Onboarding process

1

Fill in the form

Provide your organisation name, contact name and corporate email.

2

Confirmation email

You will receive an email confirming your request is under review.

3

Activation email

Once approved, you will receive your access credentials and connector URL.

4

Access your connector

Log in to the DSR interface with your credentials to manage your data assets.

Organisation details

Contact person