The impacts of rising heat are becoming increasingly noticeable in the school context as well. To enable Austrian schools to adapt to future climate conditions, the project ‘Climate Ready Schools’ is researching ways to increase their climate resilience.
What are the aims of the project?
In Climate Ready Schools, students, teachers, and school administrations from six partner schools are actively involved in the scientific work as co-researchers. As a central outcome of the project, we are developing a Climate Resilience Handbook for Schools. This handbook includes options and recommendations for action to enhance climate resilience, taking into account the specific conditions of the school context. It also provides knowledge-building on climate impacts and climate resilience and is complemented by a Climate Readiness Check. The research activities include surveys on current heat exposure, workshops to develop measures for increasing climate resilience, microclimatic simulations of outdoor areas, measurements of micrometeorological parameters on school grounds and in classrooms, as well as drone surveys to identify heat hotspots at selected school locations.
How can you participate in the project?
Exclusive individual participation as a citizen scientist in the project is not possible due to the project structure and the collaboration with the six partner schools. If students, teachers, or school administration wish to carry out selected elements of the project (workshops, surveys, etc.) at their own school, we kindly ask them to get in touch. We are happy to provide materials to support independent implementation.
Group photo of the project team
Figure 1: Aerial photograph of the school grounds showing the locations of the measuring instruments. Figure 2: Visualisation of the mean radiant temperature (MRT) at 11:00 am on a hot summer’s day.
