Keeping kids cool in a warming world

Many people’s fondest childhood memories are of time spent outdoors. Maybe you had a favorite neighborhood tree you liked to climb or a game you liked to play on the elementary school playground. These outdoor experiences don’t just make for good memories, they are also important for child development.

However, research shows that children are increasingly spending less time in nature. And in many parts of the world, rising temperatures caused by climate change threaten to make it more uncomfortable – and in some cases, downright dangerous – for children to spend time outdoors. 

Cities and towns around the world are responding to the threats that climate change poses to children’s health, and the threat that reduced time outdoors poses to their well-being, by investing in new forms of infrastructure in their communities – water features, natural plantings, shade structures and more – that help to cool urban neighborhoods and provide attractive places for kids to play.

Children and global heat

Children face unique risks from global heat. Because they sweat less and young children’s immune systems are still developing, they are especially susceptible to heat-related illnesses, including heat stress, cramps and exhaustion, as well as vector-borne diseases correlated with rising temperatures. 

Heat has also been shown to impair children’s cognitive development: global warming is forecast to reduce academic achievement by 4-7% annually per child, with heat making it harder for children to concentrate and learn. A study in the U.S. found that children’s math scores decreased significantly on days when temperatures exceeded 78.8°F. In addition, increased temperatures are known to exacerbate symptoms of poor mental health in children, including stress and anxiety.

The issue of rising heat is particularly urgent for urban communities, where health systems could become overwhelmed with heat-related health effects. Urban areas are often characterized by hard surfaces such as concrete and asphalt, which absorb heat during the day and release it at night. This process leads to urban heat islands, where cities are significantly warmer than the surrounding countryside. 

Thus, addressing the unique vulnerability of children to rising heat requires a focus on urban solutions – including changes and improvements to infrastructure. 

 

 

Green, gray and blue infrastructure

A growing number of cities around the world are beginning to combat this issue through the expansion of so-called “green infrastructure” in public spaces where children learn and play. 

Green infrastructure – sometimes referred to as “natural” or “nature-based” infrastructure – can take a range of forms, including forests and public parks, as well as individual green elements such as street trees and green walls and roofs. Incorporating natural features like these into urban landscapes can help cool our cities through canopy cover and ambient cooling from evapotranspiration of moisture from the leaves. 

These green elements can be deployed in combination with more traditional “gray infrastructure,” which includes human-engineered features like artificial sun shields, cool roofs and other reflective surfaces. Human-made structures can create shade or reflect away sunlight to produce cooler spots for children outdoors.  

Water, too – so-called “blue infrastructure” – has an important role to play. Blue infrastructure can again take various forms, from ponds, rivers and streams to larger-scale nature-based stormwater infrastructure. It can also refer simply to public drinking water sources in our cities, like water fountains. Installing fountains for cooling and drinking and keeping existing fountains in a state of good repair can allow children to stay hydrated and cool in the heat. 

Green, gray and blue forms of infrastructure can all – individually or in combination – help to cool the public places children frequent, including schools, playgrounds and parks. As recognition of this benefit grows, cities around the world are finding creative new ways to expand these forms of urban infrastructure:

• Eleven primary schools in Barcelona have planted vegetation and trees, and incorporated water points and shade elements such as awnings and pergolas in their playgrounds.
• Seven municipalities in Brazil have created natural play spaces, with local landscapes and vegetation, in disadvantaged neighborhoods and near early childhood education centers. 
• The city of Tirana in Albania has converted parking lots into child-friendly areas and parks to make mini-oases and planted over 1 million trees.
• A program in Paris is working to replace paved schoolyards with vegetated areas, including trees, lawns, orchards and vegetable gardens. In the pilot project, natural elements and innovative products and materials were introduced, and rainwater was used for cooling through evapotranspiration. 
• In Hungary, an initiative called “Cooling Budapest” has integrated human-made features such as artificial sun shields with various forms of planted vegetation into the country’s capital.

Similar measures have also been pioneered in schools in the U.S.:

• California developed a Heat Action Plan in 2022 which highlighted the need for heat-resilient schools. The plan recommended cool roofs, trees, outdoor shade structures, cooling equipment and a reduction of asphalt with an increase in natural ground cover. 
• Green schoolyards have been built to replace asphalt surfaces at schools in Philadelphia, featuring green roofs, vegetable gardens and shaded trees. 
• The community organization Depave in Portland, Ore., has partnered with local schools to remove asphalt and build nature playgrounds and healing gardens.
• The Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas is investing in green and blue infrastructure with the Center for Academic Achievement as its pilot project. Native wildflower and grass zones, shallow ponding areas and permeable pavements are planned to be implemented in the center.

The combination of green, gray and blue infrastructure can play a key role in helping children adapt to rising temperatures while providing safe places for them to enjoy the outdoors. The multitude of initiatives springing up all over the world reveals how public spaces, from schools to parks to community gardens, can be transformed into beautiful, natural areas for children to spend time outside. To protect the physical and mental health and cognitive development of future generations, communities must invest in localized action for improving and developing outdoor environments to adapt to increasing heat.