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The NWO grant on Climate Adaptation and Health is worth ~2.2 million euros for their BENIGN (BluE and greeN Infrastructure desiGned to beat the urbaN heat) project, a collaboration between the Radboud University, Wageningen University & Research, Unlimited Urban Management (UUM), Deltares, University of Applied Sciences Leiden, Donders Institute, VU Amsterdam and the Radboudumc.
A major challenge of modern society is dealing with the consequences of climate change, which include increments in daily average air temperatures and in the frequency, severity and duration of heatwaves. Countries around the world agree that urgent action is necessary to counteract the global environmental crisis and keep the increase in average global temperature below 1.5°C to stop the destruction of nature and protect a healthy living environment.
As a result of urbanization, cities are on average warmer than adjacent rural areas. Previous studies suggest that well‐designed blue and green infrastructure (e.g., canals, rivers, bioswales and/or trees, city parks, green roofs) in the built environment could reduce environmental heat stress (i.e., by lowering air temperature and/or humidity). In turn, this can contribute to reduce human heat strain and decrease the risk of heat‐related illnesses (i.e., excessive hyperthermia, dehydration and worsening of cardiovascular, respiratory and renal injury).
The BENIGN project aims to enhance our understanding of how spatial design interventions – focusing on blue and green infrastructure at the building and neighborhood scale – influence healthy living conditions and health of humans. We define healthy living conditions as the effects of indoor and outdoor climate on physical and mental health related to heat stress, water quality, and plant diversity.
Role of the Radboudumc
BENIGN will employ an interventional study design wherein the healthy living conditions and their effect on the health of vulnerable groups of citizens will be studied as dependent variables of urban blue and green interventions. We will examine the indoor and outdoor climate and its impact on health using real-life observational measurements during a heatwave before and after the implementation of the blue and green interventions that will be co-designed with three municipalities (i.e., Leiden, Hilversum and Dordrecht). Furthermore, citizens science will be used to examine the environmental characteristics of the indoor climate in a large population and relate this to their built environment and health. An overview of this work package is presented in the figure below.
Project outcome & impact
The final aim of the BENIGN project is to develop a decision support tool for policy makers, which is based on the insights of this project, and could be used by municipalities to support their spatial planning initiatives. In the end, this could facilitate future design processes of blue and green interventions leading to more informed decision-making.
