How do you keep cool during summer? To tackle extreme heat and protect vulnerable communities, ICLEI Member Zaragoza (Spain) is transforming schoolyards into nature-based climate shelters.

The Municipality of Zaragoza, Spain, has worked with its schools lately through the “Adapta tu patio” initiative, putting an emphasis on re-naturalising schoolyards, as part of its Climate Change Adaptation Plan. In fact, to better fight extreme heat and urban heat island effects, identified as the city’s main threat. In two pilot schools, CEIP Hispanidad and CEIP José María Mir, Zaragoza introduced shade, greenery, and water-sensitive designs to reduce heat stress and improve liveability.

Newly formed “schoolyard committees” oversaw the collaboration. Co-creational processes are indeed at the heart of Zaragoza’s approach, for example, involving management, teachers, parents, non-teaching staff and pupils to tailor greening activities and adapt them with local needs. Based on local input, those working with the NBS EduWORLD project, of which ICLEI Europe is an active partner, were able to catalogue the developments into an educational repository and assist with technical support.

The Municipality also developed three guidance documents to help cities and school administration to work on similar actions. In 2025, Zaragoza Municipality is supporting 5 schools in their re-naturalisation efforts and is aiming to help 5 more schools next year, engaging the whole neighborhood in the discussions.

Projects like the one in Zaragoza are possible because cities share ideas and learn from each other about how to bring more nature into urban areas. This kind of teamwork, supported by the Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions team at ICLEI Europe, helps cities get better at using nature to solve problems. It also helps them include these ideas in schools and in the way cities are planned and managed.

Want to learn more about other municipal activities for nature in schools, including Paris, Genoa and Belgrade? Read more here.