Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AURORA (Demonstrating trAnsformative solUtions to empower climate Resilience tOwards impRoved public health stAtus in the EU Boreal Region)
Reporting period: 2024-09-01 to 2025-08-31
Climate change poses a growing threat to the interconnected health of ecosystems, animals, and people across Europe’s Boreal region, as rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and emerging infectious diseases increasingly disrupt natural and societal balance. In order to address this issue, AURORA aims to develop a comprehensive climate-health toolset including predictive models, early warning systems, and an AI-powered Decision Support platform to enable proactive climate adaptation and health protection.
AURORA has 5 main objectives:
Obj. 1 – Enhance short- and long-term insights pertaining to the health consequences of climate-induced stressors by conducting a comprehensive multi-scope analysis, which includes the examination of the influence of climate change on the One Health concept.
Obj. 2 – Strengthen current epidemiological surveillance, modelling and forecasting capacity induced by climate change through the co-design and -development of 1) a climatic and epidemiological observatory, 2) appropriate models encompassing all socio-economic aspects and adaptation scenarios, and 3) user-friendly forecasting tools.
Obj. 3 – Improve preventive policy-making and health system’s preparedness ahead of climate change by 1) co-implementing a holistic Decision Support system that entails early-warning and -response, and 2) assessing and predicting the effectiveness and health impact of mitigation solutions, including nature-based ones.
Obj. 4 – Demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the AURORA toolset in 5 major Baltic cities (Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Tampere, Pori) and replicate its results in 3 participating municipalities (Klaipeda, Jurmala, Joniskis).
Obj. 5 – Accelerate the adoption of AURORA solutions and maximise their impact through an efficient dissemination, communication, liaison, training and exploitation activities.
The pathway to impact combines co-design, technical development, validation and consolidation steps that progressively move from problem framing to sustained use and exploitation.
The project’s results (observatory, models, simulation engine, risk assessment and early warning, decision support, and city-specific risk and vulnerability plans) are designed to close the gap between EU-level data and local preventive action, especially for the issues faced in Boreal cities.
AURORA has 5 main objectives:
Obj. 1 – Enhance short- and long-term insights pertaining to the health consequences of climate-induced stressors by conducting a comprehensive multi-scope analysis, which includes the examination of the influence of climate change on the One Health concept.
Obj. 2 – Strengthen current epidemiological surveillance, modelling and forecasting capacity induced by climate change through the co-design and -development of 1) a climatic and epidemiological observatory, 2) appropriate models encompassing all socio-economic aspects and adaptation scenarios, and 3) user-friendly forecasting tools.
Obj. 3 – Improve preventive policy-making and health system’s preparedness ahead of climate change by 1) co-implementing a holistic Decision Support system that entails early-warning and -response, and 2) assessing and predicting the effectiveness and health impact of mitigation solutions, including nature-based ones.
Obj. 4 – Demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the AURORA toolset in 5 major Baltic cities (Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Tampere, Pori) and replicate its results in 3 participating municipalities (Klaipeda, Jurmala, Joniskis).
Obj. 5 – Accelerate the adoption of AURORA solutions and maximise their impact through an efficient dissemination, communication, liaison, training and exploitation activities.
The pathway to impact combines co-design, technical development, validation and consolidation steps that progressively move from problem framing to sustained use and exploitation.
The project’s results (observatory, models, simulation engine, risk assessment and early warning, decision support, and city-specific risk and vulnerability plans) are designed to close the gap between EU-level data and local preventive action, especially for the issues faced in Boreal cities.
During the first reporting period, AURORA established the core scientific and technical foundations required for its integrated climate–health platform. Work focused on: (i) completing the initial multi-scope analysis of climate-induced stressors and One Health impacts across the Boreal region; (ii) mapping current environmental and epidemiological surveillance, modelling and forecasting tools to identify functional and data gaps; (iii) designing and initiating the climatic and epidemiological observatory and associated data model; (iv) defining preliminary user requirements, use cases and KPIs through a series of online and in person design-thinking workshops with city partners; (v) formally establishing and operationalising the Implementation Hub as the central mechanism for continuous stakeholder engagement; and (vi) specifying the end to end system architecture and technical specifications for the AURORA integrated platform and cloud infrastructure, including data flows and interoperability between data collection, modelling, simulation and DSS components.
These were supported by the following deliverables:
D1.1: Project Management Handbook and Risks, Quality and Ethics Management
D1.2 Data Management Plan
D1.3 Gender Dimension Plan
D1.4 First interim Data Management Plan
D2.1 Literature Review on climate-related stressors and Gap analysis on existing surveillance, modelling and forecasting tools
D2.2 Composition and Operational Framework of The Implementation Hub
D2.3 First version of the User Requirements, Use Case and KPI definition
D3.1 AURORA’s System Architecture and technical specification
D7.1 AURORA's Communication and Dissemination Plan
D7.2 Intellectual Property Management Framework
These were supported by the following deliverables:
D1.1: Project Management Handbook and Risks, Quality and Ethics Management
D1.2 Data Management Plan
D1.3 Gender Dimension Plan
D1.4 First interim Data Management Plan
D2.1 Literature Review on climate-related stressors and Gap analysis on existing surveillance, modelling and forecasting tools
D2.2 Composition and Operational Framework of The Implementation Hub
D2.3 First version of the User Requirements, Use Case and KPI definition
D3.1 AURORA’s System Architecture and technical specification
D7.1 AURORA's Communication and Dissemination Plan
D7.2 Intellectual Property Management Framework