Smart Climate Routes

The Tourism Services Department of the Barcelona Provincial Council (Gerència de serveis de Turisme, GST) works to promote environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, territorially balanced and innovation-driven tourism through technical support initiatives, tourism product development, and the promotion and improvement of tourism infrastructure and visitor information tools.

Within this framework, the GST is finalising the development of a route viewer designed to facilitate the search and consultation of hiking and cycling itineraries promoted by local authorities across the province, thereby contributing to balanced visitor flows and sustainable territorial development. Both the route viewer and the underlying datasets are being developed using ESRI technology.

In parallel, work is underway on an automatic route planning system based on the province-wide slow mobility network. This development is part of the TRANS-MUNTANYA project (European Territorial Cooperation Programme Spain-France-Andorra POCTEFA 2021-2027, co-funded by the ERDF) and will use the open source Geotrek platform.

Both applications share a common objective that distinguishes them from other route websites: to provide visitors with routes validated by local authorities and supported by reliable information regarding their accessibility and associated services.

However, in a context increasingly shaped by the effects of climate change, the suitability of a route no longer depends solely on the physical condition of the paths involved. It is becoming increasingly important to understand the environmental and weather conditions under which the activity will take place, both from the perspective of user comfort and safety.

The challenge is no longer simply determining whether a route can be followed, but whether it is advisable to undertake it under specific environmental and weather conditions.

Climate change is altering the conditions in which hiking and cycling activities take place across the province of Barcelona. Rising temperatures, more frequent and intense heatwaves, prolonged drought periods and increasing wildfire risk are having a growing impact on route selection, planning and enjoyment. At the same time, users' perception of comfort depends on multiple factors, including solar exposure, the availability and quality of shade, vegetation cover, natural ventilation, altitude and weather conditions. These needs also vary throughout the year: while users tend to seek cooler, more sheltered routes during summer, sunnier and warmer itineraries may be preferable during winter.

It is in this context that we ask:

How can we help visitors and residents identify the most comfortable routes according to the environmental, weather and safety conditions of any given moment?

We are looking for an innovative solution capable of analysing route networks and providing information on environmental comfort along itineraries. The solution could combine geospatial data, landscape characteristics and weather information to identify potentially cooler or warmer sections, estimate shade and solar exposure throughout the day and across seasons, take wildfire risk restrictions into account, and provide recommendations or alternative itineraries tailored to individual user preferences.

In line with the Barcelona Provincial Council's commitment to interoperability, data reuse and technological sovereignty, preference will be given to proposals based on open source software, open standards and architectures that facilitate integration with platforms such as Geotrek and with the geographic information systems currently in use.

The objective is to move towards truly climate-smart routes that enhance visitor experiences, improve safety for outdoor tourism activities, and contribute to the adaptation of the tourism sector to the impacts of climate change.