Antwerp’s Cool Spots: Local Solutions to Urban Heat, Belgium

Key Learnings

About the Region

Climate Threats

Currently, rain, cold winters and significant precipitation characterise Antwerp’s climate, but heat stress is on the rise as heatwaves are also affecting Belgium. The risk of heat stress is increasing as urban heat islands grow, meaning warmer temperatures within the city than in the surrounding areas. Without heat adaptation actions, particularly vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children, and people with preconditions, will increasingly suffer from heat stress, with the number of heat-related casualties expected to increase (2018).

A Dual Strategy to Tackle Heat Stress

Figure 1: CLUHI Maps of the Urban Heat Island (difference between the urban and rural air temperatures) (in °C) as a measure of nighttime heat stress in 2013 (left) and the projection for 2030 (right). Image Credit: City of Antwerp, 2020.

Designing and Implementing Cool Spots

Scientific indicators, such as the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, measure how hot it feels to people by considering more than just air temperature. This indicator considers sunlight, humidity, wind, and the cooling effects of shade, vegetation, and water. Another indicator is the potential average radiation temperature, which shows how much heat a surface or area emits. By mapping the indicators at a city scale, Antwerp has been able to identify heat-stressed areas.

Those indicators also supported the development of effective urban design guidelines for the cool spots. Each cool spot typically covers at least 200 m², with over 80% canopy cover and at least half of the surface unpaved and greened. The cool spots combine shade, trees, seating areas, drinking water provision, and sometimes water features such as fountains – offering accessible, comfortable green spaces within 150 meters walking distance of every residence. Building on these guidelines, the city has mapped all existing cool spots and identified urban areas outside of the accepted 150-meter reach. Combined with the heat maps, the cool spots coverage map enables decision-making on targeted interventions.

Figure 2: Cool spots coverage map showing cool spots in dark blue with their 150m buffers in light blue (2015). Image Credit: City of Antwerp, 2025.

Examples of cool spots include the EcoHuis garden and the Den Bell square. Aiming to lead by example, the city council turned those sealed surfaces into greened, shaded areas. In the case of Den Bell, the newly greened outdoor space is supported by water retention infrastructure, allowing healthy root growth, in spite of the underground parking garage. Redesigning large parks, such as Zuidpark and Spoorpark, included dedicated “cool pockets” tailored to vulnerable groups, providing shade and relief during extreme heat.

Figure 3: Den Bell Square, before in 2024 (left) and after in 2025 (right). Image Credit: City of Antwerp, 2025.

Figure 4: The EcoHuis garden is a model cool spot that includes canopy, water elements, and seating. Image Credit: City of Antwerp, 2025.

Scaling-Up Greening

Pilot projects are essential for testing adaptation actions in terms of feasibility, costs, and maintenance needs. The test results will guide Antwerp’s climate and greening plans in the next five to ten years. Each pilot helps the city understand what measures are applicable and sustainable before scaling up across neighbourhood plans and future climate strategies.

Beyond implementing cool spots, Antwerp is investing in longer-term, systemic greening to expand the tree canopy and vegetative cover and facilitate the overall cooling of the city. This includes projects such as:

• “Future Trees” (Toekomstbomen): Monumental trees are large, important and live for a long time. Planting them with special underground systems that provide enough space, water, and nutrients ensures full growth, longevity, and full canopy development. Those “Future Trees” will provide shade, cooling and environmental benefits for decades.
• “Garden Streets” (Tuinstraten): Transforming streets that have too much pavement (sealed surfaces with little greenery) into green corridors. These streets provide shade, reduce heat, and help absorb rainwater. The initiatives are organised by the city together with local residents, who actively participate in planning and implementing the changes.
• Private greening incentives: Antwerp offers several programs to encourage citizens and schools to add more greenery:

1. Eco Schools (EcoScholen): Schools can contact EcoHuis (governmental department) with questions about the environment, nature, and climate. Schools that aim to become climate-friendly or nature-rich receive intensive support with coaching and subsidies. Every preschool, primary, or secondary school in Antwerp receives a free, no-obligation initial consultation. They can then decide for themselves whether to become an EcoSchool and embark on a climate program. The initiative, for example, helps schools green their schoolyards.
2. Tree Campaign (Boomcampagne): Provides free trees for planting. Every year, the city of Antwerp offers 2,000 free trees to its residents, schools, and businesses to plant in private or unpaved spaces. A “choosing” application helps residents pick species suited to their garden’s size and sunlight. They can collect the trees in November with planting and care guidelines provided.
3. Climate Incentive (Klimaatpremie): The new incentive is unique in Flanders and consists of a base amount and bonuses for homeowners, businesses, schools, associations, and other organisations who want to implement more ambitious greening and adaptation measures. The city is allocating over €1.5 million for this purpose. The premium is part of the recently proposed Antwerp Climate Plan 2030 and offers subsidies for green adaptations.
4. Cobble removal service (Tegelwippenservice): Every Antwerp resident who wants to removes paving stones at home and replace them with greenery is eligible for the free depaving pickup service. Depending on the depaved surface area, each resident receives one or two rubble bags (big bags) that the company ReKuub collects from their doorstep. The service is free for the residents and paid for by the city.

Figure 5: Klimaatpremie (subsidies for adaptation measures). Image Credit: City of Antwerp, 2025.

These programs give residents practical ways to cool their neighbourhoods, manage rainwater and increase biodiversity.

Stakeholder Engagement and Collaborative Governance

Antwerp’s success lies in its cross-sector, collaborative approach. The Climate Dashboard enables tracking the progress on tree planting, depaving, and greening. Projects are jointly developed with:

• Municipal departments: Urban planning, mobility, climate, and maintenance teams work together to integrate cooling into broader public space strategies.
• Residents and communities: Involving citizens in designing garden streets through collaborative platforms like Stadslab2050, through which the community helps decide what the greenery and layout should look like, increasing local ownership and usability. Garden streets are redesigned to include more greenery and garden-like features. They often have plants, trees, or small gardens integrated into the street space, which can help cool the area, improve air quality, allow citizens to use and experience the street in a different way, and generally make the street more pleasant for people.
• Private and academic knowledge partners: the Flemish Institute for Technological Research and others provide data, models, and innovation support.
• EU support: EU funds help scale up key projects like Zuidpark.

Main challenges to address heatwaves

• Integrating cooling infrastructure in dense, built-up areas: Dense urban areas often lack space for new parks, green roofs, or water features. Installing nature-based cooling solutions in these areas can be technically difficult and costly due to limited land availability and existing buildings.
• Ensuring equitable access to cool spaces across all neighbourhoods: Some neighbourhoods may have fewer public spaces or less investment in greening, meaning vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, economically disadvantaged, and children, could be more exposed to heat.
• Balancing long-term greening goals with immediate liveability needs: While planting trees or creating green corridors takes time to show full cooling effects, residents need relief from heatwaves now. This creates tension between projects that benefit the city over decades and short-term solutions.
• Balancing greening with other urban priorities (mobility, safety, budget): Green infrastructure competes with other urgent urban needs with spatial implications, such as road expansions, cycling paths, or safety improvements.
• Ensuring long-term maintenance and irrigation of new green spaces: Planting trees and creating parks is not enough. Those spaces require ongoing care, watering, and pruning to stay effective. Without proper maintenance, investments in cooling infrastructure can quickly lose their impact.
• Overcoming private property limitations and ownership constraints: Many potential sites for green interventions are privately owned, making it difficult to implement public cooling solutions.

Summary

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