Antalya Bilim University Takes Part in the “Cool Islands” Project Against Global Warming
November 25, 2025
Antalya Bilim University has become one of the partners of the international project “RE-FRESH_Let's adapt to global warming with cool islands!”, a significant initiative in the fields of combating climate change and environmental sustainability. The project is coordinated at our university by Dr. Melike Çetin, Assistant Professor, while Dr. Hamid Farrokh Ghatte, Assistant Professor, serves as key staff.
The main objective of the project is to focus on reducing the effects of global warming in urban areas as part of the fight against climate change and, within this framework, to develop education and implementation models that prioritize environmental sustainability. Accordingly, the project aims to equip instructors and students with knowledge and skills that complement existing curricula and to develop innovative pedagogical engineering for the creation of “cool islands” in cities.
Within the scope of the project, multilingual guides will be produced on how cool islands can be designed, constructed, and maintained, and pilot cool island implementations will be carried out in different countries. In addition, climate change adaptation–oriented training modules will be developed: two modules for building and landscape professionals and one module for maintenance staff. Among the project’s specific objectives are enabling training centers to benefit from educational offerings adapted to the climatic conditions of their regions and raising awareness among users of cool islands in every language through an inclusive approach.
The RE-FRESH project also envisions a democratic and participatory learning process. During the transformation of artificial and highly mineralized urban areas into cool islands, project users will be involved in the process from the very beginning. In this way, local resources and stakeholders will be used effectively, and the knowledge gained from participants’ experiences will be directly reflected in the project.
The project has a strong partnership structure involving institutions from different countries:
France: GIP Formation Continue et Insertion Professionnelle de l’Académie de Créteil (Créteil)
Turkey: Antalya Bilim University (Antalya)
Portugal: MA-TERIARCH Lda (Lisbon)
Spain: Ayuntamiento de Alzira (Alzira)
Portugal: Rio Plano Arquitectura Paisagista Lda (Lisbon)
Through this project, Antalya Bilim University aims both to contribute to the climate change adaptation process and to create an innovative, sustainability-oriented educational and practical platform for students and instructors.
