Barnet Climate Adaptation and Resilient Communities

In April and May 2025, the University of Derby’s Civic team, led by Professor Rhiannon Jones, worked with partners and communities in the London Borough of Barnet, as well as placemaking expert Dr Cara Courage, to explore public experiences of extreme heat, access to cool spaces, and the role of civic and community leadership in building local climate resilience.

Across 30 April and 1 May 2025, the project created structured spaces for reflection and exchange, engaging 85 people through a combination of public and community leader focused activity. This included a bespoke public engagement installation at Brent Cross shopping centre and a curated meal with community leaders at Hendon Town Hall.

This project highlighted the importance of creating time and space for people to reflect collectively on lived experience. Discussions surfaced the need to:

• Use accessible, everyday language when talking about heat, wellbeing and care, recognising that the term “climate” can feel distant or abstract
• Recognise that definitions of “cool spaces” are socially and culturally shaped, not simply physical or technical
• Develop communications that speak across different levels of knowledge, from first time participation to expert practitioners
• Give community leaders the space and trust to lead, drawing on existing relationships, networks and lived expertise

These conversations reinforced the importance of place based approaches that are sensitive to Barnet’s social, cultural and demographic diversity.

Key themes that emerged included:

• The interconnection of ecological and human wellbeing, recognising trees, green infrastructure and non‑human life as active contributors to heat resilience.
• The psychogeography of shade and shelter, and how feelings of welcome, invitation and safety influence where people go in hot weather.
• The need for community‑rooted, multichannel communication, using trusted local messengers rather than relying on online updates alone.
• The importance of amenity, reliability and cultural resonance in cool spaces, particularly for families, older people and isolated residents.
• Recognition of the mental‑health impacts of isolation during extreme heat, and the value of informal, chance social encounters in neighbourhood life.
• A call for civic institutions to move from broadcast communication towards reciprocity and mutuality, co‑creating trust through listening and action.

The Barnet project demonstrates how place led, relational approaches can help civic institutions respond to climate challenges in ways that feel meaningful, inclusive and grounded in lived experience.

By centring trust, language, care and community leadership, the project offers a model for how universities can work alongside local authorities and residents to co-create climate resilience — not just as a policy goal, but as a shared civic practice.

To see more, visit our Civic Hub.