Project description
Building cities’ resistance to extreme heat
Devastating extreme heat events (EHEs) have become a serious problem for dense areas of European cities. As the negative effects of EHE are expected to increase due to climate change, there is an urgent need for adaptive strategies. Unfortunately, Europe lacks common norms concerning monitoring and reporting of adaptive capacity for enhanced implementation of necessary measures. To overcome this challenge, the EU-funded U-ADAPT project proposes a new, dynamic measuring approach to determine and monitor the adaptation of EU urban areas to EHEs. The project will enable testing and implementation of the framework and its norms and strategies in the framework of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to protect citizens from the impact of extreme heat.
Objective
The U-ADAPT! project proposes a novel approach for the dynamic measuring of urban adaptation to extreme heat. Extreme Heat Events (EHE) are the deadliest weather- and climate-related hazard in Europe. In recent years, heat waves have overwhelmed the continent, and projections show an alarming increase in EHE risk driven by natural and socioeconomic factors . Mitigation, adaptation, and transformative strategies need immediate implementation, but the rate of adaptation and depth of the transformation are in question.
Reports stress that the progress of adaptation in European cities is patchy, uncoordinated, and of varied quality. Cities are still implementing their first adaptive measures and developing ideas for monitoring and reporting adaptation strategies. However, concrete norms or indicators for adaptation monitoring are scarce. In the research sphere, adaptation has mostly been discussed in terms of adaptive capacity, rather than implementation, which is the focus of this proposal. Despite the efforts, there is still very little consensus as to what constitutes effective and adequate adaptation, and therefore little agreement about models and indicators to measure it.
The scientific aim of U-ADAPT! is to advance and test a theoretical integrated framework to examine the actual implementation of adaptation strategies to the risk of EHE in urban areas of the European Union (EU), in the context of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). The ultimate societal goal is to develop a model to assist cities in their responsibility to provide a safe and sustainable environment. The output of this research will also empower citizens to audit the commitment of their cities to EHE risk reduction and evaluate measures to reduce short- and long-term negative impacts of heat.
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
41013 Sevilla
Spain