inURBECitizens PRIN PNRR 2022
inURBECitizens: strengthening INtegrated Urban climate Resilience in the Built Environment through multi-objective strategies and Citizens involvement
Cities face major environmental and social challenges, worsened by population growth and climate change. In particular, the urban heat island (UHI) effect can raise temperatures by up to 10°C compared to suburban areas, intensifying heatwaves and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. Additionally, climate change has led to more extreme weather events, with heavier rainfall in winter and prolonged droughts in summer.
The built environment can help mitigate these issues through strategies like reflective materials or green roofs. However, mitigation efforts have so far been analyzed separately, without a holistic approach. The inURBECitizens project proposes a multi-objective strategy, jointly considering all elements of the built environment while actively engaging citizens. Through citizen-sourcing, combining citizen science and crowdsourcing, we will gather data on both subjective and objective perceptions, encouraging direct citizen contributions to enhance urban resilience.
The project aligns with Italy’s PNRR missions, focusing on urban resilience, flood risk reduction, and green space protection. It also supports the Italian National Research Plan by promoting an interdisciplinary approach, integrating social sciences and STEM to develop comprehensive mitigation and adaptation strategies. The outcome will be a framework for designing more resilient cities, leveraging small, widespread urban spaces to implement scalable and sustainable solutions.
