VARCITIES
The project seeks to establish sustainable models for increasing the health and wellbeing of citizens (children, young people, middle age, elderly) that are exposed to diverse climatic conditions and challenges around Europe.聽
Main content
In an increasingly urbanising world, governments and international corporations strive to increase productivity of cities, recognized as economy growth hubs, as well as ensuring better quality of life and living conditions to citizens. Although significant effort is performed by international organisations, researchers, etc. to transform the challenges of cities into opportunities, the visions of our urban future are trending towards bleak.聽The increase in urban population is聽already intensifying聽the pressure on urban services and facilities,聽as well聽as聽on nature and聽ecosystems,聽significantly affecting the liveability of contemporary cities.聽Air聽pollution and heat island effect are just two of the most evident聽impacts聽of the climate crisis we have started to live.聽These聽impacts聽will聽more and more聽negatively聽affect social聽and health facilities, whose responsiveness and efficiency聽is聽more than ever crucial聽in time of聽pandemic crisis聽like in 2020.聽The vision of VARCITIES is to implement real, visionary ideas and add value by establishing sustainable models for increasing health and wellbeing of citizens (children, young people, middle age, elderly) that are exposed to diverse climatic conditions and challenges around Europe.聽The ambitious foundation of VARCITIES lies in the close interrelation of sustainability, public health and digital innovation in order to make cities more liveable and welcoming; shared public spaces are pointed out are the privileged areas where to explore this integration, and ultimately to foster the evolution towards fully 鈥渉uman-centred cities鈥�.聽
Objectives
The specific objectives of the project are:聽
鈥� To design聽visionary nature-based solutions which contribute to the shaping of future cities and the wellbeing of citizens聽in eight European cities.聽
鈥� To聽monitor and assess the sustainability and impact of interventions through advancing and developing new KPI indicators for health and well-being.聽
鈥� To聽improve the sustainable transition to smart and future cities聽by creating a framework of locally adapted GBF (Governance, Business, Financing) models.聽聽
鈥� To聽include, in the co-design process, various stakeholders and inspire sustainable and resilient future聽smart聽cities.聽聽
鈥� To聽achieve knowledge exchange, maximization of EU investments, advancement beyond the state of art through clustering with other European initiatives and platforms.聽聽
鈥� To聽transfer, upscale and sustain best practices聽from VARCITIES through the development of a Healthy Cities Helix.
Work packages
WP1 Project management
WP2 Problems identification and design of visionary solutions
WP3 Stakeholder engagement and co-creation
WP4 ICT Solutions
WP5 Visionary solutions implementation
WP6 KPI development, monitoring and evaluation
WP7 Exploitation and business models.聽