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Vienna Climate Guide - Monitoring
2. Climate adaptation

2.1 Health and wellbeing

Heat affects the city as a whole and, hence, all Viennese. Taking account of gender-specific differences, this concerns in particular vulnerable groups of persons, such as the elderly or care workers. With regard to the effects and the correct behaviour in the case of heat waves and extreme heat, the City of Vienna prioritises in-depth information and awareness building. Updated information is available in both print and online media. Individual queries are answered around the clock by the City of Vienna app and the WienBot, while the heat wave warning service issues heat alerts in emergency situations.

The levers and packages of measures sketched in the Climate Guide with respect to health and wellbeing are defined more concretely in the Vienna Heat Action Plan first published in 2022. It complements the long-term measures of the Vienna Climate Guide by adding short-term interventions, including a precise definition of competences. For example, cooling zones serve as cool recreation islands, in particular for persons highly vulnerable to heat. These air-conditioned indoor spaces can be used free of charge without the need to purchase anything and, hence, constitute a truly low-threshold service. During the pilot phase in 2023, two cooling zones were introduced; their number was stepped up to 13 in 2024.

Moreover, it is planned to adapt social and healthcare institutions to increasing urban overheating, prepare them for extreme heat events and, in this way, render them “heat-proof”.

Potential solutions are currently being planned; for example, climate-related skills need to be developed as part of the curriculum of healthcare workers and social service specialists, while vulnerable groups must be reached and supported in even more targeted fashion. Furthermore, it was decided in September 2022 to realise the modernisation programme of the Vienna Healthcare Group (German acronym WIGEV) by 2040. This programme also provides for the implementation of a climate protection and sustainability strategy to ensure highly future-proof hospital operation.

Illustration that sketchily combines various elements related to health and well-being in connection with summer overheating: a person in a doctor's coat and stethoscope, a person in a wheelchair, two people sitting under a tree sweating and drinking water, two glasses of water, a beach flag advertising the Cool Zones, a thermometer, a cell phone with which heat information and offers from the City of Vienna can be called up.

Highlights:

  • Heat-related information disseminated through the City of Vienna app and the WienBot

  • Heat wave warning service

  • Individual recommendations for action in print and online media

  • Vienna Heat Action Plan: Action plan with short-term, concrete measures in the case of hot spells

  • Already 13 cooling zones as free-of-charge cool places for all

  • Solutions for a “heat-proof” social and healthcare sector are being planned

  • The health risks resulting from heat are part of the public and political discourse