30th of January 2025, 16.00-17.00 CET
Urban areas are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As cities grow in size and population, they will be more impacted by climate change and become increasingly more vulnerable. In order to tackle this growing challenge, cities need to put in place climate change adaptation plans and urban development strategies that allow them to become more resilient.
This is what the HARMONIA project has been doing over the last four years with four pilot cities. A Horizon 2020 funded project, HARMONIA aimed to provide a resilience assessment platform to help urban stakeholders understand and quantify the effects and impact of climate change. Based on satellite and auxiliary data, the HARMONIA platform offers a user-friendly knowledge base, allowing stakeholders to not only understand, but also visualise, the impacts of climate change at local scale (e.g., at neighbourhood and street level).
Designed to strengthen urban resilience and enhance risk management practices, HARMONIA has provided substantial benefits for the local governments of the 4 pilot municipalities and their citizens. One success story came from the Sofia municipality, where the tools developed in the project enabled the identification of areas at risk of flooding, resulting in calls for regulatory changes to prevent construction in these vulnerable zones. Previously undetected subsidence and ground motion, likely caused by overexploitation of the underground aquifer combined with the impact of climate change, were also detected through the HARMONIA platform.
This success story shows how EO-informed decision making can help cities enhance their risk management capabilities, influencing local policies and regulations, as well as inform their urban resilience plans, making them better prepared to face the effects of climate change.
Join us next Thursday, as our host Geoff Sawyer (EARSC Strategic Advisor and former Secretary General) and Kristian Milenov (Executive Director, ASDE – Agency of Sustainable Development and Eurointegration – Ecoregion) explore how EO-informed decision-making can help cities and urban areas better plan their urban development and climate change adaptation strategies, through the lens of the HARMONIA project’s success story of the Sofia municipality in Bulgaria.
Some questions that could be addressed during this EOcafe include:
- What is the HARMONIA project? What were its key objectives and outcomes?
- What challenges do cities face? Are there any specificities from the Sofia municipality?
- How can EO help uncover and address climate-impacted urban challenges and geohazards?
- What are the advantages of EO in decision-making and influencing local policies and regulations?
- What are the particularities of the HARMONIA platform that are of particular interest for cities and local authorities?
- What other EO data and services could be useful for cities and municipalities? Did other cities express other needs?
Registration:Â The webinar is open to all. Registration is free but compulsory.
Please note this is a virtual event!
EOcafe is part of a series of EARSC meetings that offer timely, relevant, and practical information on a broad variety of topics related to the EO sector. Join us every two weeks to discuss and network while enjoying a cup of coffee with friends.
IMPORTANT NOTES!!!
- The use of a video camera is not mandatory but is encouraged to facilitate better interaction between the attendees and the guest speaker(s).
- The EOcafe will stay open after 17:00 in case our guests want to continue the discussion.
- By registering for this event, you accept the terms and conditions (https://earsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EARSC_Events_GDPR.pdf).
If you have any questions, and/or you want to know more about the EOcafe, and/or you want to share an idea about a future EOcafe, please contact Tanya Walker (tanya.walker@earsc.org).
