To explore the concept of public luxury, we compiled a list of private and public swimming pools. Data for all public swimming pools and accessible lakes were gathered from Berlin.de, the official city portal, and mapped accordingly.
For a detailed look, we focused on Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin's wealthiest district. Using high-resolution satellite images provided by Vertical52, we manually marked the pools using QGIS software. With this method, we were later able to visually display the geopositions (latitude and longitude).
Cooling options are crucial during increasingly hot summer days, but other factors like place of residence, social status, and environmental stress also significantly impact our health. Berlin's Environmental Justice Concept for 2021/2022 considers factors such as noise and air pollution, green space availability, thermal stress, and social disadvantage. These data divide the city into 542 ‘Planungsräume’ (PLR), the smallest units relevant for planning and evaluating city policies. The overall social disadvantage is rated on a scale from one to seven, with one representing the wealthiest conditions and seven the least economically well-off.
To address social inequality, we compared the number of public swimming pools in these PLR zones with socioeconomic indicators. Economic and population data were sourced from Berlin's Geoportal. Climate models for predictive analysis were developed by Climate Analytics.
We visualized our data using Datawrapper.
To obtain more precise information on the number and distribution of private pools all over Berlin, the pools will be automatically detected. Amir Hamedpour supported us by developing a Python-based model specifically for our satellite images, which can automatically identify private pools. Amir is a Remote Sensing Engineer and PhD researcher based in Island.
Additionally, future research could explore water consumption and investigate the impact private pools have on the urban microclimate.
There are already several initiatives advocating for the construction of new public swimming pools and the allocation of public funds for the maintenance and preservation of existing facilities. Others are demanding action to focus on improving the accessibility, cleanliness, and safety of natural water bodies for users.
Berlin braucht mehr Schwimmbäder Clean River Project e.V. Berlin braucht mehr Schwimmbäder Website Flussbad Berlin Projectsite