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Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes - Towards integrated city observatories for greenhouse gases

Project description

Developing new concepts to observe cities’ greenhouse gas emissions

Cities are emission hotspots and play an important role in emission reduction efforts. Observing and verifying greenhouse gas emissions from densely populated urban areas is essential. The EU-funded project PAUL (ICOS Cities) will develop and evaluate innovative greenhouse gas measurement technologies and observatories. The aim is to provide unique data sets feeding diverse models and scientific studies, while testing the feasibility of modelling approaches in various areas. Moreover, the project will help cities execute their climate action goals by providing data on fossil fuel emissions from urban areas. Pilots will be conducted in Munich, Paris and Zurich. For increased impact, 12 other European cities are included in the city network.

Objective

"The ""Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes - Towards integrated city observatories for greenhouse gases"" (PAUL) project supports the European Green Deal by creating capabilities to observe and verify greenhouse gas emissions from densely populated urban areas across Europe. Cities are recognized as important anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission hotspots and therefore play a significant role in any emission reduction efforts. The PAUL project aims to increase our understanding of specific needs of greenhouse gas emission assessment in urban environments; it compares available and novel observational approaches and implements an integrated concept for a city observatory, providing unique data sets that feed diverse modelling approaches, scientific studies and will be the base of services towards the city administrations. A specifically innovative approach is the co-design of services, models and observations between city administrators and scientists from multiple disciplines including social and governmental sciences.The PAUL co-design approach will explore the needs of the cities and combine these with the scientific outcomes. This allows to introduce smart services to the cities, supporting evidence-based decisions on climate action and strategic investments. Overarching goals of PAUL are to:
1) implement elements of a pilot city observatory in a large (Paris), a medium (Munich) and a small (Zurich) European city,
2) collaborate with city stakeholders and engage citizens in co-designing services that are required for GHG monitoring in order to validate the implementation of Paris Agreement, and
3) increase our understanding of specific needs of GHG assessment in urban environments and create a service portfolio for setting up an urban greenhouse gas observatory."

Call for proposal

H2020-LC-GD-2020

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Sub call

H2020-LC-GD-2020-6

Coordinator

INTEGRATED CARBON OBSERVATION SYSTEM EUROPEAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURECONSORTIUM
Net EU contribution
€ 984 736,25
Address
ERIK PALMENIN AUKIO 1
00560 Helsinki
Finland

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Region
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 984 736,25

Participants (38)