Description
The goal of UrbanAIR is to develop a new digital twin that supports decision-makers in urban areas to deal with urban designdilemmas in atmospheric heat and air quality to maximise the health and socio-economic well-being of its citizens affected by climatechange. It will provide critical tools for climate adaptation and hazard control through urban design and planning, including veryhigh-resolution model components of the urban atmosphere.
UrbanAIR is designed by a consortium that covers the full value chainto revolutionize digital twin platforms by starting from the perspective of the end user. Through co-creation with the end users and abalanced evaluation of the decision criteria, the overall objective of UrbanAIR is to yield a dynamic, user-friendly infrastructureintegrated into the Destination Earth infrastructure that empowers municipalities and industries to face urgent urban climate risks.
The scales in the atmospheric models in UrbanAIR cover the full range from the regional to the neighbourhood level. This innovativemultiscale approach is achieved through the development of software interfaces for the modular coupling of atmospheric models. AIbasedemulators allow for the acceleration of these computationally expensive models, which, together with the application ofadvanced data assimilation techniques, allows the quantification of risks and uncertainties for the UrbanAIR scenarios. Correspondingbehavioural models simulate the human response to changes in climate and associated hazards.
The resulting scenarios form theinput to the objective evaluation of the criteria for decision-making. With these science-based tools for scenario simulation of naturaland human behaviour, reliable risk assessment, and balanced decision analysis, UrbanAIR will develop tools and the infrastructure tosupport decision-makers in cities. This will pave the way for effective climate adaptation by developing tools for a safer, healthier, andmore resilient future.
Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement number 101188131. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
