SMURBS
SMart URban Solutions for air quality, disasters and city growth
Funding: Horizon2020
Period: September 2017 - August 2020
Total project budget: ---
Total budget CNR IIA: ---
Scientific Responsible: Cristina Tarantino

Abstract of the project

According to the United Nations "World Urbanization Prospects: 2014 Revision" in today's increasingly global and interconnected world, more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, while the next few decades will bring further profound changes to the size and spatial distribution of the global population. , also due to the increasing migration processes. Continued urbanization is projected to add 2,5 billion urban population by 2050 and the world population living in cities will increase to 66%. Under these circumstances, the challenges of sustainable development will increasingly focus on cities.

SMURBS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, such as the winning project of the transnational ERA-PLANET call under section 1 "Smart Cities and Resilient Societies", and will be implemented between September 2017 and August 2020 , with the aim of promoting the concept of "smart city" through the integration of EO, serving the need for a common approach to improve environmental and social resilience to specific urban pressures.

The overall ambition of SMURBS is to improve the quality of life of citizens and improve cities' resilience to air pollution and natural and man-made disasters, through a chain of "smart urban solutions", which take into account the rates of existing urban growth, long-standing impacts such as on health and increasing pressures such as migration. Existing smart cities or their networks do not take full advantage of the capabilities provided by EO to provide holistic approaches to modern environmental pressures. The main aspiration of SMURBS is to bring together a wide range of partners with a high degree of experience in EO, pooling national resources and structures and coordinating national / regional research programs, cultivating the exchange of know-how and applying a interdisciplinary action to overcome the currently fragmented state of EO under the common banner of the smart city concept. through a chain of “smart urban solutions”, which take into account existing urban growth rates, long-standing impacts such as on health and increasing pressures such as migration. Existing smart cities or their networks do not take full advantage of the capabilities provided by EO to provide holistic approaches to modern environmental pressures. The main aspiration of SMURBS is to bring together a wide range of partners with a high degree of experience in EO, pooling national resources and structures and coordinating national / regional research programs, cultivating the exchange of know-how and applying a interdisciplinary action to overcome the currently fragmented state of EO under the common banner of the smart city concept. through a chain of “smart urban solutions”, which take into account existing urban growth rates, long-standing impacts such as on health and increasing pressures such as migration. Existing smart cities or their networks are not making full use of the capabilities provided by EO to provide holistic approaches to modern environmental pressures.

The main aspiration of SMURBS is to bring together a wide range of partners with a high degree of experience in EO, pooling national resources and structures and coordinating national / regional research programs, cultivating the exchange of know-how and applying a interdisciplinary action to overcome the currently fragmented state of EO under the common banner of the smart city concept. long-standing impacts such as on health and new increasing pressures such as migration. Existing smart cities or their networks do not take full advantage of the capabilities provided by EO to provide holistic approaches to modern environmental pressures. The main aspiration of SMURBS is to bring together a wide range of partners with a high degree of experience in EO, pooling national resources and structures and coordinating national / regional research programs, cultivating the exchange of know-how and applying a interdisciplinary action to overcome the currently fragmented state of EO under the common banner of the smart city concept. long-standing impacts such as on health and new increasing pressures such as migration. Existing smart cities or their networks are not making full use of the capabilities provided by EO to provide holistic approaches to modern environmental pressures. The main aspiration of SMURBS is to bring together a wide range of partners with a high degree of experience in EO, pooling national resources and structures and coordinating national / regional research programs, cultivating the exchange of know-how and applying a interdisciplinary action to overcome the currently fragmented state of EO under the common banner of the smart city concept.

The ultimate goal of SMURBS is to promote the “smart city” approach, responding to the need for a common approach to improve environmental and social resilience to specific urban pressures, through the integration of EO. In consideration of this objective, its objectives are divided into 3 categories: a) Overarching, which aims to align and exploit existing programs, strategies, data, networks, services and objectives, b) Verticals, which define urban pressures targeted (air pollution, disasters, urban growth) and their reciprocal relationships with health, migration and other inequalities, and c) Horizontal, to ensure the interoperability of data and services produced within ERA - PLANET and other infrastructures .

The specific objectives of ERA-PLANET are:
ENHANCE Earth Observation by enabling informed decision making
ALIGN the national agendas and programs, the smart city projects in progress
CONTRIBUTE to the implementation of the GEO strategic plan (2016-2025), optimize the exploitation of Copernicus data and key services
Increase cross-validated EO information and synergies between different platforms / services for urban scale applications
Strengthen interoperability through the use of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) and the adoption of GEOSS data sharing and management principles.

NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS (NOA), Greece
IDRYMA IATROVIOLOGIKON EREUNON AKADEMIAS ATHINON (AoA), Greece
ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS (AUTH), Greece
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (CNR), Italy
HIGHER INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND RESEARCH (ISPRA), Italy
UNIVERSITY OF CALABRIA (UNICAL), Italy
CENTER NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS), France
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA YAPLICACIONES FORESTALES (CREAF), Spain
HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM-GEESTHACHT (HZG), Sweden
IVL SVENSKA MILJOEINSTITUTET AB (IVL), Sweden
INSTITUT JOZEF STEFAN (IJS), Slovenia
NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “DEMOKRITOS” (NCSR), Greece
MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA (MU), Czech Republic
PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUT (PSI), Switzerland
SPACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF UKRAINE AND THE NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY OF UKRAINE (SRI), Ukraine
LEIBNIZ INSTITUT FUER TROPOSPHAERENFORSCHUNG eV (TROPOS), Germany
ROMANIAN SPACE AGENCY (ROSA), Romania
STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET (SU), Sweden
HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO (UHEL), Finland