BeatTheHeat, Urban-Heat Communication & Activation, Cartagena
Cities Forum was contracted by the City of Cartagena to create, manage and strategically activate the communication of the "BeatTheHeat" project, an EU-funded pilot tackling extreme urban heat.
Year: 2026 | Client: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena (EU DS4SSCC / Interreg Euro-MED HEATSAFE) | Country: Spain (Cartagena) — EU / Mediterranean
Cities Forum was contracted by the City of Cartagena to create, manage and strategically activate the communication of the "BeatTheHeat" project, an EU-funded pilot tackling extreme urban heat. As heatwaves intensify across the Mediterranean, translating technical climate-adaptation work into public awareness and behaviour change is decisive; Cities Forum's role was to give the project a strong, sustained public voice and to amplify its results to citizens and peer cities.
Our approach
BeatTheHeat is delivered under the Call for Pilots of the European Data Space for Smart Communities (DS4SSCC-DEP), within the Digital Europe Programme and coordinated by the Open & Agile Smart Cities network, and is closely linked to the Interreg Euro-MED "HEATSAFE" initiative. It brings together a group of exposed Mediterranean cities, Cartagena and Barcelona in Spain, alongside partners in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Italy, around practical responses to urban heat: heat-vulnerability mapping, the construction of climate shelters, immediate-response solutions and public-awareness campaigns.
What we delivered
Cities Forum's contract centres on the project's official communication presence, including the creation and active management of its professional social-media profile with a sustained editorial rhythm through to autumn 2026. The scope covers profile optimisation, an editorial plan, graphic assets, community growth and impact metrics, with content spanning heat-vulnerability maps, the roll-out of climate shelters, awareness campaigns and citizen-facing guidance. Crucially, the firm amplifies this content through its own institutional channel, with a following approaching a hundred thousand, extending the project's reach far beyond its immediate networks.
Impact
By pairing rigorous, EU-standard project communication with the reach of an established sector platform, Cities Forum helps BeatTheHeat convert technical adaptation measures into public understanding and engagement across the Mediterranean. The assignment reflects the firm's growing work at the meeting point of climate adaptation, European data spaces and strategic communication, and its ability to ensure that ambitious resilience projects are not only delivered, but seen, understood and acted upon by the communities they aim to protect.
