Project, 2025
LIFE ESCAPOS
D.1 – LIFE Energy + LIFE Climate – Project 101157553
LIFE23-CCA-IT-LIFE ESCAPOS "Environmental energy for Strategic CApillary urban POlicieS"
(funded by the European Union; Grant Agreement – GAP-101157553)
To achieve the long-term vision of the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change (European Commission, 2021), the adaptation and resilience of cities to climate change is a requirement that cannot be postponed any further.
The proposed Nature Restoration Law includes specific targets: to halt the loss of urban green space by 2030, to increase its area by at least 3% by 2040 and by at least 5% by 2050, to reach a minimum of 10% urban tree canopy cover in all cities and suburbs by 2050, and to achieve a net gain of urban green space, also integrated into existing and new buildings and infrastructure.
Climate change and its associated phenomena, such as urban heat islands and heat waves, affect people's health and the liveability of indoor and outdoor urban environments, as well as the balance of the ecosystem.
The EU Urban Agenda has highlighted the need to develop nature-based solutions (NBS) to increase the role of urban ecosystems (defined as socio-ecological systems composed of green infrastructure and built infrastructure). Trees, parks, green roofs, gardens and urban forests help improve air quality, reduce noise, mitigate summer temperatures by reducing the heat pockets that concentrate in cities, and provide a damping/buffering effect against external forcings and extreme climate events. They also provide intangible benefits, such as recreation, cultural and aesthetic values and the maintenance of social relationships. Importantly, people living in neighbourhoods with a higher density of street trees or a greater amount of green space turn out to be healthier, or report being so.
In this context, LIFE ESCAPOS is a European project that aims to optimise and test a new approach both for climate adaptation planning and for monitoring the results of the policies and interventions implemented by the Municipality.
The integrated operational tool that will be optimised and tested in a pilot area of the Municipality of Florence (Firenze Nova) is the Escapos system, which is meant to be integrated into the Municipality's Smart City Control Room. Escapos makes it possible to analyse, study, balance and optimise the energy flows of any urban system with a view to climate-resilient mitigation and adaptation.
During the project, the area will therefore be monitored continuously before and after the interventions (parameters: temperature, humidity, air quality, wind speed and direction, illuminance), also using monitoring systems with fixed stations and wearable devices, in order to dynamically populate the database and to verify the effectiveness of a series of interventions affecting the overall situation of the area.
The climate mitigation interventions that will be implemented are linked to what is already planned in the Green Plan of the Municipality of Florence, attracting a series of public investments to the area.
The project is carried out by the Municipality of Florence, as lead partner, together with the University of Florence, the engineering company Vie en.ro.se., the company Baker Hughes-Nuovo Pignone and the Fondazione per il Futuro delle Città.
The main objectives the project aims to achieve by 2027 are:
1 – Optimisation, upscaling and testing, in a pilot area of the Municipality of Florence, of the new ESCAPOS approach, based on the DCVs (Dynamic Control Volumes) system, which is to become an operational tool able to integrate and interface all existing municipal climate data, plans and policies through a capillary network of information that is always available, updatable and open source.
2 – Adoption of the DCV as an operational and implementation tool for planning and monitoring the actions identified in the climate adaptation plan of the Municipality of Florence.
3 – Testing of public/private collaboration protocols for joint, synergistic climate adaptation actions, making adaptation faster and more systemic.
4 – Implementation of the actions of the climate adaptation plan with the support of the tool developed, in a particularly vulnerable and critical test area of Florence, where the DCV will be tested as a tool to ensure environmental sustainability and protection, to schedule interventions and to monitor their effects.
5 – Systematisation of the DCV approach, using the DCV integrated with GIS – deep learning techniques as a general policy of the Municipality, which will extend the climate benefits to the whole city.
6 – Testing of a people-centred approach, involving active citizens to raise their awareness and, in particular, involving specific population groups in data collection campaigns, to develop an equitable, inclusive and aware approach to managing climate-change issues, strengthening resilience and improving adaptive capacity.
Project start: 1 July 2024
Duration: 36 months
Project budget: €2,455,645.72 (60% co-funded by the European Union)
• Lead partner: Municipality of Florence, Environment Department, contact person Dr. Arnaldo Melloni
• Scientific manager of the project, coordinator and contact person for UNIFI: Prof. Carla Balocco, Environmental Technical Physics
• Partners: University of Florence (UNIFI), Vie en.ro.se. Ingegneria (VIENROSE), Baker Hughes-Nuovo Pignone (NUOVO PIGNONE), Fondazione Futuro delle Città (FFC)
More information (page in Italian): Municipality of Florence, Environment Department