Western Europe experienced an unprecedented heat wave this summer. Temperature records were broken one following the other. This is one of the visible effects of global warming, the consequences of which will continue to worsen in the years to come. “It is neither a prophecy, nor an intuition, nor a hypothesis. We are in a new climate regime in which some are already suffering, and which will deteriorate even further,” explained the elected environmentalist of the city to the newspaper Le Monde, “The question of habitability arises in the medium term in Paris if nothing is done.”
This is why the City of Paris wants to take effective measures to prevent future heat waves. Thus, the French capital will launch its “Paris at 50°C” operation during the month of October. The operation consists of plunging two districts of the same district (which has not yet been defined) into a fictitious heat wave scenario.
“This exercise will simulate a heat wave that we have not yet experienced, longer and with a heat dome phenomenon at 50°C”, detailed Pénélope Komitès, deputy mayor of Paris to our colleagues from Parisian. The aim is to test systems deployed by the City of Paris: “Mobile foggers, cooled rooms or even shadehouses, for example.”
But another objective of the operation is to observe the reaction of the inhabitants of the districts: “Crises, we survived them, but they can happen once more”continues the assistant, “And even if the future is engaged with concerns, this resilience strategy should not be anxiety-provoking.”
