Research projects

Research

Filtering by: Regional Models and geo-Hydrological Impacts Division

ACQUAOUNT – Adapting to Climate change by QUantifying optimal Allocation of water resOUrces and socio-ecoNomic inTerlinkages

Agriculture is by far the most water demanding sector in the Mediterranean and a sustainable use of water, combined with economic growth, cannot be achieved without improving irrigation efficiency and water productivity. The current heavy depletion of water sources is leading to water scarcity and degradation, deterioration of ecosystem services, conflicts with domestic and industrial uses and, in general, it poses limitations to economic growth. These trends will be exacerbated by CC. The ACQUAOUNT project aims to improve IWRM and sustainable irrigation through the deployment of innovative tools, smart water services and solutions, for public and private use, while contributing to climate resilience.

AEROBO: Analysis of vulnerability and risks from the impacts of climate change on the Guglielmo Marconi Airport of Bologna S.p.A.

The intensification of extreme events resulting from climate change presents numerous challenges for infrastructure, including airports. Many observations and research activities evidences that airport are especially vulnerable to the potential impacts of climate change. Therefore, it is crucial to formulate tailored adaptation strategies that enhance the resilience of these infrastructures in the face of climate change. This research project operates within this framework, aiming to conduct a climate risk analysis to facilitate the identification of specific adaptation measures that can enhance their resilience. Following the definitions outlined in the sixth IPCC report, risk will be assessed based on three key factors: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability.

AEROTOSCANA: Analysis of risks from the impacts of climate change on the Florence and Pisa Airports

Climate change is one of the major challenges that society faces in the 21st century, negatively impacting not only natural ecosystems, but also anthropogenic ones: it’s estimated that economic losses caused by weather conditions and other extreme climate events on infrastructure systems in Europe in the period 1980-2016, they exceeded 436 billion euros (EEA 2017; Mims 2022). Critical infrastructures are essential for the proper functioning of a state’s economic and social system and the interruption of the services offered could cause serious damage. In this context, airports play a unique and significant role in the global transport system and, due to their characteristics, they are also those most exposed to the potential consequences of climate change. This research project therefore has the objective of identifying and developing ad hoc adaptation strategies in order to make these infrastructures more resilient to a climate that is no longer stationary. According to the definition reported in the sixth IPCC report, the risk will be calculated based on three specific factors: hazard, exposure and vulnerability.

AGORA – A Gathering place to cO-design and co-cReate Adaptation

AGORA will support the overall objectives of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by leveraging and step forwarding best-practices, innovative approaches, policy instruments and governance mechanisms to meaningfully and effectively engage communities and regions in climate actions, accelerating and upscaling adaptation process for building a climate resilient Europe. It will promote democracy, climate justice, gender equality, equity, and foster adaptive capacity and citizens’ empowerment to pro-actively support decision-making processes.

AGRITECH – National Research Centre for Agricultural Technologies

The National Center for the Development of New Technologies in Agriculture (Agritech) is based on the use of enabling technologies for the sustainable development of agri-food production, with the aim of promoting adaptation to climate change, reducing the environmental impact in the agrifood sector, the development of marginal areas, and to guarantee safety, traceability and security of the supply chains. The project is worth around 350 million euros, of which 320 million to be paid by the PNRR and involves 28 universities, 5 research centers, and 18 companies. The Center is structured in Hub&Spoke, with the University of Naples Federico II responsible for the national hub and 9 different spokes in the thematic areas: Plant, animal and microbial genetic resources and adaptation to climatic changes Crop Health: a multidisciplinary system approach to reduce the use of agrochemicals Enabling technologies and sustainable strategies for the smart management of agricultural systems and their environmental impact Multifunctional and resilient agriculture and forestry systems for the mitigation of climate change risks Sustainable productivity and mitigation of environmental impact in livestock systems Management models to promote sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems Integrated models for the development of marginal areas to promote multifunctional production systems enhancing agroecological and socio-economic sustainability New models of circular economy in agriculture through waste valorization and recycling New technologies and methodologies for traceability, quality, safety, measurements and certifications to enhance the value and protect the typical traits in agri-food chains.

AI-GCM | The AI General Circulation Model

The ability to forecast short-term weather accurately is essential for various sectors, such as agriculture, transportation, and energy, to name a few. In recent years, deep learning (DL) techniques have shown promising results in weather forecasting. Thanks to the availability of new datasets, such as those produced within the MISTRAL (https://www.cineca.it/index.php/news/mistral-portale ) and HIGHLANDER (https://www.cineca.it/index.php/progetti/highlander ) projects, the present project aims to evaluate their potential for the development of accurate forecasts on target region projects by using DL techniques .

CARMINE: Climate-Resilient Development Pathways in Metropolitan Regions of Europe

The frequency and intensity of climate and weather extremes associated with anthropogenic climate change are increasing and will challenge us in terms of adaptation strategies at the local level. The project “Climate Resilient Development Pathways in Metropolitan Regions of Europe (CARMINE)” bridges the local and regional scales by providing impact-based decision support services and multilevel climate governance supporting local adaptation, including both traditional and Nature-Based Solutions. CARMINE’s overarching goal is to help the metropolitan communities of Europe become more climate resilient, by co-producing knowledge-based tools, strategies, and plans for enhanced adaptation and mitigation actions in line with the Charter of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by 2030. To achieve this goal, focusing on the 2030-2035 timeframe and with longer perspectives up to 2050, CARMINE proposes an interdisciplinary approach aiming at (1) co-creation and co-development of decision-support services and guidelines for enhanced resilience and adaptive capacity, including early warning and disaster risk management systems; (2) cooperating closely with local to regional communities (stakeholders and users), decision-, and policy-makers (local authorities) to co-develop cross-sectoral frameworks for adaptation and mitigation actions; (3) delivering science-based R&I roadmaps for multi-level climate governance supporting local adaptation assessments and plans. The CARMINE methodology will be implemented in eight selected Case Study Areas to demonstrate proof of concept and project methodology will be demonstrated through the digital replication of climate and socioeconomic characteristics of each area. The co-created knowledge and transferable development pathways from CARMINE will be shared widely via project networks in order to

CLIMAAX – CLIMAte risk and vulnerability Assessment framework and toolboX

CLIMAAX responds to the call HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01 by providing financial, analytical and practical support to European regions, allowing an improvement of regional climate and emergency risk management plans. It is designed to significantly contribute to the harmonization and consolidation of the practice of climate risk assessment, leaving a substantial legacy for upcoming European initiatives.

CLIMATEFIT – Resilient CLIMATE Financing and Investment Taskforces

Urgent accelerated action is required to adapt to unavoidable and ongoing climate change. Climate-resilient investments must be substantially scaled up. Public budgets will not be able to address the adaptation financing challenge alone, financing from the private sector will also be necessary. CLIMATEFIT contributes to bridging the resilience financing gap by providing critical insight and building the capacities of Public Authorities (PAs) to attract and orchestrate various public and private funding & financing sources, and of Financing and Investment Entities (FIEs) to discover and access resilient investment opportunities.

EUCRA – The European Climate Risk Assessment

This contract will aim at carrying out the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA). EUCRA will address the climate risks in Europe and will establish a European baseline of climate risks on which countries can build on their national assessments. 

IRIDE (Precursor phase)

The IRIDE program is an innovative project undertaken by the Italian government, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), to leverage resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).  The objective of the project is to implement a service portfolio, ready for operations, providing Geospatial Products and to set up the digital tools and the operational scenarios for the provision of the services to IRIDE users, by also taking care of designing and developing suitable exploitation solutions and interfaces with User Operational Systems exploiting the IRIDE Services outputs.  As a result, IRIDE Marketplace will host the service value chains developed within the Service Segment and guarantee a single access point for the Users. 

MAPRISER: Climatic Hazard Mapping for National Electrical System Risk Analysis

The increase in the frequency of critical meteorological events, observed in recent years in our country, calls for an expanding research effort to support the enhancement of resilience in the Italian national electrical system. In this context, it becomes imperative to identify high-risk areas, where network infrastructures are particularly exposed to such events. This analysis serves as a foundation for implementing targeted interventions aimed at preventing and reducing the risks of power interruptions. To achieve this goal, climatic data will be evaluated with a convection-permitting resolution, recently made available by the CMCC Foundation for Italy. Additionally, post-processing methods will be developed to make this information usable in Terna’s decision-making systems, further optimizing their effectiveness

MULTICLIMACT: MULTI-faceted CLIMate adaptation ACTions to improve resilience, preparedness and responsiveness of the built environment against multiple hazards at multiple scales

The MULTICLIMACT European project was funded under topic HORIZON-CL5-2022-D4-02-01. This project aims to enhance the resilience of built environment and its inhabitants in the face of changing climate conditions and increased extreme events. MULTICLIMACT want to realize a comprehensive framework and toolkit to assess and bolster resilience at various scales, considering both natural hazards and supply-chain vulnerabilities.

NEVERMORE: New Enabling Visions and tools for End-useRs and stakeholders thanks to a common MOdeling appRoach towards a climatE neutral and resilient society

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Climate Change 2021 is a “code red for humanity” according to the UN Secretary-General. It is thus essential to work on a climate resilient society. This entails both climate neutrality and mitigation of those impacts of climate change that are making themselves felt already. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of improved translations of scientific insights into policy and social practice.

NODES – Nord-Ovest Digitale E Sostenibile

NODES is an Innovation Ecosystem structured in a way such as to guarantee interdisciplinarity among its diverse themes and cross-fertilization of digital-driven technology and innovation.

PNC Clima – NATIONAL PLAN FOR COMPLEMENTARY INVESTMENT (PNC), E.1 HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE

The project proposes a multidisciplinary approach involving different national environmental protection system (SNPA) and national health prevention system of environmental and climate risks (SNPS) structures from 5 regions (Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Latium, Apulia and Sicily), as well as national health, weather and air quality scientific experts, communication experts, active citizenship associations with the aim to realize the overall objective of accelerating climate change adaptation and mitigation in urban areas, with a focus on urban green areas and sustainable mobility, and to increase, at the same time, knowledge and awareness and promote a change in citizens’ lifestyles and policies associated with major direct and indirect co-benefits at all levels: citizens, policy makers, schools, SNPA and SNPS operators. Evidence-based measures will be promoted starting from the best practices of national and international plans, policies and interventions with a focus on sustainable transport and combating urban heat island (UHI) and high temperatures. A specific focus will be devoted to vulnerability factors (clinical frailty and social vulnerability) and adaptation measures associated with social equity. 

PNRR-HPC – “SPOKE 4 EARTH & CLIMATE”: National Centre for HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing

Within Spoke 4, the scientific activity of CMCC, and of the Spoke affiliated partners, will be mainly aimed at developing a shared interdisciplinary framework for advanced Earth System Models and numerical experimentations. The framework will be focused on digital infrastructures and efficient workflows to streamline the production, facilitate the training, accelerate the understanding, and improve the quality of climate simulations and predictions.

RethinkAction – CRoss-sEcToral planning enHanced by a decisIoN-maKing platform to foster climate Action

RethinkAction focuses on supporting the objectives of the EU Green Deal translating its action plan in relevant and practical actions and solutions related to land use, as opportunities able not only to support climate neutrality and adaptation, sustainable use of the land resources, and biodiversity restoration, but also actions for social improvement, fostering equality and just transition for all designing the road map to green recovery after COVID.

SDGs-EYES – Sustainable Development Goals – Enhanced monitoring through the family of copErnicus Services

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a data driven agenda, and the use of Earth Observation (EO) can make the SDG indicators’ monitoring and reporting technically and financially viable, and comparable across countries.  SDGs-EYES aims to boost the European capacity for monitoring the SDGs based on Copernicus, building a portfolio of decision-making tools to monitor those SDG indicators related to the environment from an inter-sectoral perspective, aligning with the EU Green Deal priorities and challenges. SDGs-EYES will establish an integrated scientific, technological and user engagement framework overcoming the knowledge and technical barriers that prevent the exploitation, combination and cross-feeding of data and tools from the Copernicus’s six core Services, its space-based and in-situ components, and other platforms and portals.  SDGs-EYES considers three interconnected SDGs, on climate (SDG13), ocean (SDG14) and land (SDG15), to demonstrate through four Pilots the Copernicus potential for monitoring six indicators making part of the EU and national assessments: GHG emissions, temperature deviation, ocean acidification, marine eutrophication, forest cover change and soil erosion. Although focusing on the biosphere, these indicators are linked to other SDGs on socio-economic and (geo)political factors (e.g., human health, resources security, poverty, conflicts, displacements). Thus, an additional cross-goals indicator and Pilot will focus on vulnerable communities under cumulative climate extreme hazards.  SDGs-EYES seeks to combine the science-informed (top-down) approach with a stakeholder-driven (bottom-up) approach to transfer scientific outcomes into easy-to-understand and easy-to-use actionable information in the context of SDG indicators’ assessment. Decision-making tools delivered by Pilots will be co-designed with users,

SEBASTIEN – Smarter livEstock Breeding through Advanced Services Tailoring Innovative and multi-sourcE data to users’ Needs

Livestock production in the European Union (EU) is a large economic sector and products of animal origin make up 45% (168 billion euro annually) of the EU agricultural production value, generating jobs for almost 30 million people. Due to the high impact of the livestock sector on GHG emissions, while also suffering from accelerating changes in climate trends, variability and extreme events’ occurrence, there is an increasing need to formulate management options meeting the challenges of both climate mitigation and adaptation, e.g., by adopting and/or scheduling farming practices that can be successful under the most likely climate scenarios for the future, or under as many scenarios as possible. SEBASTIEN (Smarter livEstock Breeding through Advanced Services Tailoring Innovative and multi-sourcE data to users’ Needs) wishes to implement large-scale ICT-based (mainly Cloud but also HPC) services to support smart livestock farming and management (i.e., both environmentally and socio- economically sustainable), while reducing risks and taking opportunities posed by climate change and its variability, as well as by other concurrent environmental stressors and anthropogenic pressures.

SILVANUS – Integrated Technological and Information Platform for wildfire Management

SILVANUS envisages to deliver an environmentally sustainable and climate resilient forest management platform through innovative capabilities to prevent and combat against the ignition and spread of forest fires. The platform will cater to the demands of efficient resource utilisation and provide protection against threats of wildfires encountered globally. The project will establish synergies between (i) environmental; (ii) technology and (iii) social science experts for enhancing the ability of regional and national authorities to monitor forest resources, evaluate biodiversity, generate more accurate fire risk indicators and promote safety regulations among citizens through awareness campaigns. The novelty of SILVANUS lies in the development and integration of advanced semantic technologies to systematically formalise the knowledge of forest administration and resource utilisation. Additionally, the platform will integrate a big-data processing framework capable of analysing heterogeneous data sources including earth observation resources, climate models and weather data, continuous on-board computation of multi-spectral video streams. Also, the project integrates a series of sensor and actuator technologies using innovative wireless communication infrastructure through the coordination of aerial vehicles and ground robots. The technological platform will be complemented with the integration of resilience models, and the results of environmental and ecological studies carried out for the assessment of fire risk indicators based on continuous surveys of forest regions. The surveys are designed to take into consideration the expertise and experience of frontline fire fighter organisations who collectively provide support for 47,504×104 sq. meters of forest area within Europe and across international communities. The project innovation will be validated

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