Cities need to develop inclusive, smart and sustainable solutions to climate and water-related challenges. Using nature to solve these challenges can bring multiple benefits. The EU-funded Urban Nature Labs (UNALAB) project is taking a citizen-driven approach to developing innovative, nature-based solutions in different urban environments.
An EU-funded project is helping European cities to run district heating and cooling systems with waste heat. Solutions provided through the project capture and use this affordable and plentiful resource to help households, factories and offices save energy.
An EU-funded project has developed a virtual research environment to help the earth sciences community manage its research life cycles and to share knowledge. The new e-infrastructure platform provides easy access to vast amounts of data and tools, boosting researchers’ productivity and creativity.
Novel solutions for monitoring air quality and ultraviolet radiation are set to emerge from an EU-funded project that will harness unprecedentedly detailed data from new Earth-observation satellites.
Cyber-physical systems that blend the digital and real worlds are driving the development of smart factories, transport networks, electricity grids and even cities. The opportunities and risks presented by this expanding Internet of Things and big-data environment are being explored in-depth by EU-funded researchers.
EU research is exploring issues raised by the regeneration of urban areas and the frequent resulting displacement of existing populations, comparing case studies in both Europe and major Latin American cities. Lessons learned will inform future urban restructuration policies.
EU-funded scientists took the global warming battle literally to the streets of the cities that generate disproportionate heat fluxes, especially during increasingly prevalent heat waves. The URBANFLUXES team combined local readings and satellite-based data to map hot spots, which can help planners tackle the problem.
An EU-funded project is laying the foundations for next-generation urban traffic management systems that are capable of intelligently anticipating congestion, rather than simply reacting to it. Using innovative modelling techniques and smart city technologies, the research promises to make trips faster while reducing urban transport’s environmental impact.
Tiny particles in vehicle exhaust are damaging to human health, but some of these emissions have been too small to accurately measure until now. An EU-funded project is developing innovative technologies to achieve real-time analysis of emissions of ultrafine particles smaller than 23 nanometres.
The ICEC project, funded by the JPI Urban Europe, helped urban policy-makers tackle the challenge of integration by focusing on what works - and what doesn't - within a city's super diverse neighbourhoods.
