Enhancing public spaces adaptability to climate change: redevelopment of a public square in the city of Jijel

Northern Algerian cities, including the city of Jijel, have experienced, during the summers of recent years, several heatwaves and devastating fires requiring the evacuation of populations and causing significant physical and moral damage. This encouraged us to focus our attention on the resilience of urban public spaces and how to improve their performances: Jijel's urban public spaces are numerous and diverse but very poorly maintained, while they can be designed to serve as buffer zones, cooling spaces and places of refuge in the event of a disaster. Urban resilience is a multi-step process, ranging from, prevention, adaptability and reduction of risks and negative effects of possible disruptions (Lu et Stead 2013), to the transformability (Walker et al. 2004) of an entire urban system during a devastating disaster. This research will focus on the aspect of prevention and adaptability: the objective is to develop a series of indicators to improve both the adaptability of public spaces to heatwaves caused by climate change and the users’ experience, to then apply part of them in a small public square in Jijel. Initially, our intervention indicators will be developed through a literature review and an analysis of resilient public space projects abroad, due to the absence of local projects that conform to this thematic. Subsequently, we will create a 3D simulation to implement what we have deduced from the literature and analyzed examples. The results applied in the simulation primarily involve the creation of educational gardens and discovery pathways for their positive impact on urban microclimates, daily stress, and the attractiveness of the space. The integration of nature elements into the design of spaces, the encouragement of inclusive green spaces, areas for ephemeral activities such as cultural or awareness events, etc.