Healthy through the summer
bifa creates heat action plan for Mannheim
The city on the Oberrheingraben ranks top in Germany for heat waves – for vulnerable people in particular, that can lead to health problems and even heat-related mortality. Mannheim will therefore be one of the first municipalities in Germany to draw up a heat action plan and has commissioned the consortium of bifa (project management), Green Adapt and gsf to do so.
Mannheim has developed its own participation concept for its heat action plan together with the coordination office for citizen participation, departments such as the Youth Welfare Office and the Health Office as well as a project support group. The consortium around bifa has been implementing the concept since November 2020 and has already conducted numerous interviews with multipliers of vulnerable groups such as small children, chronically ill people or homeless people.
First results and planned steps
The results were presented in an initial workshop with around 40 representatives from the city council and administration, citizens and multipliers, and were then discussed in greater depth in working groups. Specific educational and awareness-raising measures were developed, as well as crisis management measures, and the question of where and how these people in particular can best be reached was explored. The next workshop will develop the coordination structure and communication cascade of the heat action plan. Its pilot phase is planned for summer 2021.