Beat the Heat Conference 2025
28 August 2025
On behalf of the organizing committee, we are pleased to announce the “Beat the Heat: Conference 2025” taking place on Thursday, 28 August 2025 at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Allschwil.
Scope
This year's "Beat the Heat" conference invites experts, researchers, and practitioners to address the challenges posed by urban heat and explore potential solutions. We aim to provide a platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing, foster networking and strengthening the exchange among the Swiss research, services, and implementation community on the interactions between cities, climate change, and human health. Situated within the field of urban climatology and related disciplines, the conference offers an opportunity to present findings from past and ongoing research projects as well as practical applications in planning and implementation.
Contributions
Contributions are invited on various aspects of urban heat, including measurement, modeling, heat mitigation and adaptation, as well as impacts on health, health systems and social well-being. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary submissions and contributions from young researchers on one of these three topics:
Mitigation, resilience and impacts
Measurements and monitoring
Modelling and simulations
Abstract submission and registration
Abstract submission deadline has passed.
Registration deadline - 14 August 2025.
The conference is free however, registration is required.
Organising committee
Martina Ragettli and Mirko Winkler, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
Markus Kalberer and Stavros Stagakis, University of Basel
08:45 Registration opens
| Moderator: (tba) | |
| 09:30 | Welcome and Setting the Stage, Organising Committee |
| 09:45 | Towards a Dynamic Assessment of Urban Heat Exposure, Gabriele Manoli, Laboratory of Urban and Environmental Systems |
| 10:15 | Heat and Health, Sarah Koch, Department of Sport, Exercise, and Health, University of Basel |
| 10:45 | Coffee Break / Poster Session (60 minutes) |
| 11:45 | Morning Breakouts (Parallel session 1)
|
| 12:45 | Lunch Break (60 minutes) |
| 13:45 | Fast Track to Climate Adaptation in Basel, Susanne Fischer and Marc Pfister, Basel City Department of Public Works and Transport, Urban Planning and Architecture, Spatial Planning Section |
| 14:15 | Spotlight: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Application – Urban Climate Analysis for Adaptive Planning, Andreas Wicki, GEO Partner AG |
| 14:35 | Placing Health at the Center of Climate Action, Cathryn Tonne, Barcelona Institute for Global Health Barcelona ISGlobal |
| 15:05 | Coffee Break / Poster Session (30 minutes) |
| 15:35 | Afternoon Breakouts (Parallel Session 2)
|
| 16:45 | Closing Words and Poster Award, Organising Committee |
| 17:00 | End of Event |
Information
When and where
| Date | 28 August 2025 |
| Time | 09:15 - 17:00 CEST |
| Venue | Swiss TPH Kreuzstrasse 2 4123 Allschwil Switzerland |
Speakers
Susanne Fischer
Project Manager, Department of Public Works and Transport of Canton of Basel-Stadt, Urban Planning & Architecture, Section of Spatial Planning
Marc Pfister
Project Manager, Department of Public Works and Transport of Canton of Basel-Stadt, Urban Planning & Architecture, Section of Spatial Planning
Andreas Wicki
Project Leader, GEO Partner AG and External Lecturer, University of Basel
Gabriele Manoli
Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Urban and Environmental Systems EPFL ENAC IA URBES
Sarah Koch
Assistant Professor, Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel and Associated Researcher at Barcelona Institute for Global Health