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An early warning System protects Amadora’s residents from heatwaves and ensures appropriate resident behaviour.

Key Learnings

About the Region

Climate Threats

Over the past 30 years, Amadora has experienced higher average temperatures for 20 of those years compared to the previous century. Projections suggest a further warming of 0.4°C by the end of this century. In 2022, Portugal recorded 2,212 heat-related deaths associated with a heatwave. Amadora’s population is especially vulnerable to heat caused by the densely populated city with largely sealed surfaces and higher inner-city temperatures compared to its surroundings. Other key drivers of heat exposure include limited green spaces and capacity for their expansion. Socioeconomic factors, including the low-income levels of much of the population, affect energy efficiency and limit access to cooling for the city’s residents. Moreover, at-risk populations, such as the elderly and low-income households, are particularly threatened during these extreme heat events. Due to its growing population, the city replaced green spaces with buildings, aggravating the heat in the city.

Aligning Urban with Emergency Response Planning for Better Adaptation

An SMS Alert System for Timely Local Resident Warning

Amadora has developed an Early Warning System with private sector support from the local SMS marketing platform uSendit to inform residents about heatwave risks and promote public safety. A dense network of meteorological stations within the city collects the required data on temperature, humidity, wind and rain that feed into the alert system. The system primarily operates through SMS alerts, which provide timely warnings and recommendations based on data from the National Meteorological Institute and health authorities. To receive the SMS alerts, the citizens register in the system by sending a written authorisation SMS to a local register under Civil Protection’s lead in cooperation with uSendit. Civil Protection further coordinates these efforts, ensuring that information is swiftly communicated to the community when the National Meteorological Institute predicts heat waves.

When the SMS-alert system sends out a heatwave warning, Amadora activates a response protocol, an extraordinary briefing with all municipal entities (health, relief, security and civil protection) to launch concrete response actions. The city holds coordination meetings with the local Health Authority, the Fire Department, the Red Cross, the Social Intervention Division, the local police, the public hospital and the Civil Protection Service to finalise strategies, assign responsibilities, and craft clear messaging. To maximise clarity, the system distributes short templates with colour-coded alerts and recommended actions via SMS, Facebook, and other social media channels.

Protection Efforts for at-risk Groups

Key stakeholders, including the Red Cross, local police, and the Social Department, are working together to enhance outreach, especially to at-risk groups like the elderly and homeless people. During the summer, health and social departments conduct bi-weekly visits to about 3,000 to 4,000 residents, ensuring they receive the necessary support and information.

Amadora municipality also prepares designated emergency shelters – public sports pavilions – during extreme heat events. These shelters offer safe, cool spaces for at-risk populations, including elderly residents, individuals with health concerns, and those without adequate cooling at home. The shelters are a key component of the city’s heatwave response, providing relief and immediate protection during high-temperature periods.

While largely effective, the Early Warning System still faces challenges such as the need for multilingual messaging to serve non-Portuguese-speaking residents. Amadora acknowledges this gap and aims to provide critical updates in English and French to ensure inclusive access to information. In addition to these direct interventions, the city has started awareness campaigns to inform the public about the dangers of extreme heat. Educational campaigns and community engagement have helped residents understand how to protect themselves during heat waves

Heatwaves are an increasingly critical issue in Amadora, with extreme temperatures severely impacting health and the environment. The collaborative stakeholder network enhances Amadora’s ability to manage heat risks, combining local knowledge, academic research, international insights, and technological support to create a community-centred approach. Coordination, participation and cooperation are essential for the city’s resilience to the impacts of heat waves.

Vitor Ferreira (Mayor | Municipality of Amadora)

  • Strong Political Leadership: The mayor's active long-term support has been essential, providing high-level alignment across departments and ensuring that heat risk management remains a city priority. This political backing has been crucial for gaining buy-in from all stakeholders involved.
  • Dedicated Focal Point in Civil Protection: Civil Protection acts as the central coordinator, overseeing heat risk strategies and consolidating efforts from the urban planning, social, environmental and health departments. This focused leadership helps institutionalise heat risk management, ensuring effective implementation and more streamlined decision-making.
  • Collaborative Governance: Effective coordination between city departments has enabled a comprehensive and cohesive approach to managing heat risks.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Partnerships with key local stakeholders, including the Red Cross, local police, the SMS marketing provider uSendit and the Social Department have strengthened Amadora’s Early Warning System and outreach to at-risk groups. Figure 3 shows representatives of the Red Cross raising awareness at a primary school.
  • Participation in the Making Cities Resilient Campaign: Amadora’s involvement in the former Making Cities Resilient Campaign and MCR2030 provided essential frameworks for assessing heat risk, completing a scorecard assessment, and developing a Disaster Risk Reduction plan that highlighted urban heat as a key vulnerability, guiding the city’s resilience strategies.

Challenges for Moving Forward in Climate Change Adaptation

While the city’s awareness of urban heat as a critical climate risk has grown fast, its efforts regarding long-term changes in urban design, building standards, infrastructure upgrades, and land use planning have been moving slowly. This is due to the complexity and high resource demand of larger-scale projects, lengthy regulatory processes, physical space limitations in densely built-up areas, and challenges related to retrofitting existing infrastructure. Addressing immediate needs often takes priority, which can delay broader, structural adjustments. Increasing awareness of the full range of available solutions also takes time, as it involves adapting traditional practices and expanding knowledge and capacity around innovative, climate-resilient strategies.

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Disclaimer
The contents and links to third-party items on this Mission webpage are developed by the MIP4Adapt team led by Ricardo, under contract CINEA/2022/OP/0013/SI2.884597 funded by the European Union and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, CINEA, or those of the European Environment Agency (EEA) as host of the Climate-ADAPT Platform. Neither the European Union nor CINEA nor the EEA accepts responsibility or liability arising out of or in connection with the information on these pages.

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