Impetus4Change
I4C is a research project where urban practitioners, social scientists and climate modellers work together to improve the quality and accessibility of near-term climate information in cities and regions. It provides seamless climate information across timescales at local spatial scales where impacts and risks are most felt and where on-the-ground adaptation interventions are being implemented.
Duration: November 2022 - October 2026
Our work in this project
The Knowledge Integration Team (KIT) co-coordinates Impetus4Change and leads the coproduction work in the project. Impetus4Change will coproduce highly localised near-term climate knowledge with stakeholders in four Demonstrator cities: Barcelona, Bergen, Paris, and Prague. These climate services will support decisions on different aspects of adaptation, ranging from urban redevelopment and climate shelters network in Barcelona, addressing interactions between health risks, air quality and the urban heat island effect in Paris and Prague, and improving flood resilience and urban planning in Bergen. The results from these four-year case studies will form the climate services implementation and adoption support guidance pack for each demonstrator, from which we will synthesise an overall roadmap of best practices for coproduction of urban climate services.
Why is this work relevant?
Impetus4Change pioneers the development of urban climate services on a near-term time scale. It is also one of the first projects to entirely follow the coproduction framework developed in KIT (Bojovic et al. 2021; Baulenas et al. 2023). Co-production in I4C involves three stages: 1) co-exploring the problems, solutions and realities that decision-makers face; 2) co-designing prototypes of climate services; and 3) co-developing these into climate knowledge products that are fit for real-world applications. The entire process is co-evaluated to capture lessons learned and combine these with a detailed analysis of climate adaptation knowledge networks to explore the services’ replicability in cities and regions across Europe and beyond.
Highlights
Case study: Barcelona
We work with local stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation, focusing on building resilience to extreme summer temperatures. Examples include information for the design and extension of the climate shelter network, operational planning and protocols to respond to heatwaves and long-term urban planning. We will combine cutting-edge climate data with socioeconomic data to understand different vulnerabilities to the changing climate in the region of Barcelona.