Udalsarea 2030, the Basque Network of Sustainable Municipalities, has presented the hiriZAIN tool to its Technical Committee. It is a support tool designed to help municipalities integrate health, equity and climate action into urban planning to reinforce the role of urban planning as a lever to improve quality of life and resilience to climate change.

The Basque Government’s Department of Health, BC3 and Ihobe have participated in the development of the tool as part of the Udalsarea 2030 initiative and updated through the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project

The session provided an opportunity to showcase the updated version of this tool, which was initially developed in 2014 as part of the Udalsarea 2030 initiative with the participation of the Basque Government’s Department of Health.

This update, carried out within the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project in collaboration with BC3 and Ihobe, strengthens the tool’s climate perspective by incorporating the relationship between climate change, urban planning and health.

hiriZAIN is designed as a practical tool to support municipal teams and stakeholders involved in the planning, development and evaluation of urban policies and projects. Its implementation enables plans and actions to be analysed from the perspective of health and equity, while identifying opportunities for improvement in terms of climate resilience, and fostering the mainstreaming of health across all municipal urban policies.

hiriZAIN is a practical decision-making tool that helps analyse urban plans and projects in terms of their impact on health, equity and resilience to climate change

In this respect, the tool helps highlight how every urban planning decision directly influences the way people live, move around, interact and look after their health, as well as the ability of municipalities to adapt to climate risks, such as heatwaves, floods and extreme weather events.

Health, Climate Change and Urban Planning: An Integrated Perspective

During the Technical Committee Meeting, the Basque Government’s Department of Health presented the conceptual framework of the tool, emphasising the importance of approaching urban planning from the broad perspective of health, understood as a state of physical, mental and social well-being influenced by numerous social, environmental and territorial factors.

The tool is intended for municipal technical staff, policy-makers and stakeholders involved in the planning, development or evaluation of urban policies and projects

Ihobe has clarified the development of hiriZAIN, explaining its origins within Udalsarea 2030 and its evolution within the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project. In this context, it has been highlighted that climate change is one of the main challenges to public health, while also offering an opportunity to transform urban environments into safer, healthier, more inclusive and more resilient spaces, ensuring that the benefits of climate action reach the entire population and help reduce health inequalities. Finally, how the tool works and its practical applications have been presented at the local level.

The practical session concluded with the Department of Health presenting the Legazpi case. The results of the pilot project and the key lessons learned were shared, demonstrating the usefulness of applying this approach to urban planning decision-making at the municipal level.