Digital Tools to Improve Heatwave Management
With 2026 already recorded as the hottest summer in Bari since 1950, and heat-related deaths across Europe running between 50,000 and 70,000 a year, the pressure on regions to act on extreme heat has never been more urgent.
A RESIST thematic webinar organised by SERN brought together partners and external experts to present digital tools that help regions understand, forecast, and respond to heatwave risk — from hyper-local warning platforms for tourists to satellite-based heat mapping and health-impact early warning systems.
Warning Tourists and Operators in Bari
Puglia Region, the Polytechnic of Bari, and HYDS presented how their teams are adapting the Argos platform — originally an early-warning system for floods and other weather emergencies — to heat risk in the city of Bari. The tool combines regional weather warnings, sensor networks, and two forecast models: a low-resolution global model with a 15-day outlook, and a high-resolution “physiological equivalent temperature” (PET) forecast reaching five days ahead.
The platform maps heat hazard at specific tourist and recreational sites — beaches, parks, squares, and countryside destinations — and factors in vulnerability (age, health conditions) and exposure (the physical intensity of different tourist activities). The goal is to eventually issue site-specific warnings and daily recommendations, such as a ranked list of the best places to go each day, to tourism operators, frontline staff, and visitors.
Seeing Heat From Space
SatVu, a satellite data provider, presented thermal Earth-observation imagery showing how a new constellation of Earth observation satellites can capture skin-temperature data at very high resolution, day and night. Case studies in Austin and Dallas, Texas, demonstrated a strong correlation between impervious surfaces such as tarmac and higher retained heat, compared to residential or green areas.
This data is not a standalone solution but a layer that can validate and improve existing heat-risk models, helping cities identify which areas and surfaces are driving urban heat, and track whether mitigation measures — such as higher-albedo road surfaces — are having a measurable effect.
From Hazard-Based to Impact-Based Warnings
The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) presented a different approach: early warning systems built on health impact rather than temperature thresholds alone. By linking weather and air-quality forecasts to epidemiological models of heat-related mortality, the system issues warnings based on the actual risk to different population groups — accounting for age, sex, and location — rather than a single temperature cut-off applied to everyone.
The result is an operational, publicly accessible platform already covering 654 regions across Europe. Applied at smaller scales, such as Catalonia’s basic health areas, the same approach can guide more targeted interventions, for example helping public health services prioritise phone outreach to the most vulnerable residents during a heatwave.
A Common Challenge, Different Angles
Taken together, the three presentations point to a common thread: better data, at finer resolution and tied more closely to real impact, can help regions move from reacting to heatwaves to anticipating them. As speakers noted during the discussion, the main challenge going forward is not collecting more data but translating it into warnings and recommendations that are simple enough for tourists, operators, and public health officials to actually act on.
Scaling these tools to new regions is technically feasible, but adapting the underlying models to local conditions, and finding partners willing to test them with real users, remains the key bottleneck across all three initiatives.
This webinar was organised in the framework of the RESIST project, co-funded by the European Union. To explore more solutions for climate resilience, visit the RESIST Handbook of Solutions.
