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AMB guides pedestrians along cooler streets and climate shelters
Walking through Barcelona during a heatwave can become a test of endurance. To avoid journeys in the sun, the city now has a digital tool that helps people choose cooler routes, with more shade and better conditions for travelling on foot.
The web application, promoted by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona, works as an anti-heat GPS. Rather than always prioritising the shortest route, it proposes routes that take factors such as shade, pavement width, slope, traffic and pedestrian comfort into account.
The difference can be significant. In summer, two parallel streets can offer very different thermal sensations depending on the presence of trees, buildings that cast shade or materials that retain heat. Choosing the route well can make an everyday journey far less exhausting.
An experiment carried out in Sant Feliu de Llobregat showed how much the environment changes depending on sun exposure. Artificial pavement in the sun reached 50 ºC, while in the shade it dropped to 36 ºC. On protected natural ground, the temperature fell to 29 ºC.
The tool also makes it possible to locate climate shelters, spaces prepared for resting, drinking water or taking shelter during episodes of extreme heat. Libraries, civic centres, public facilities and adapted areas thus become more prominent within daily journeys.
For now, the system is available as a web version. It is expected that a specific mobile application will arrive in 2028, with improvements such as an analysis of material reflectance, which will make it possible to calculate better how sun and heat bounce off ground surfaces and façades.
The measure comes at a time when Barcelona needs to adapt its everyday mobility to increasingly harsh summers. It is not only about major works or new green areas, but also about providing useful information to decide where to walk, when to go out and where to take a break.
The anti-heat map makes one thing clear about Barcelona’s urban future: technology can also be used to look after the body in the city. In a summer marked by extreme temperatures, finding shade ceases to be a detail and becomes part of daily mobility.