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.
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. The increase in urban population is already intensifying the pressure on urban services and facilities, as well as on nature and ecosystems, significantly affecting the liveability of contemporary cities. Air pollution and heat island effect are just two of the most evident impacts of the climate crisis we have started to live. These impacts will more and more negatively affect social and health facilities, whose responsiveness and efficiency is more than ever crucial in time of pandemic crisis like in 2020. 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. 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 “human-centred cities”.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the project are:
• To design visionary nature-based solutions which contribute to the shaping of future cities and the wellbeing of citizens in eight European cities.
• To monitor and assess the sustainability and impact of interventions through advancing and developing new KPI indicators for health and well-being.
• To improve the sustainable transition to smart and future cities by creating a framework of locally adapted GBF (Governance, Business, Financing) models.
• To include, in the co-design process, various stakeholders and inspire sustainable and resilient future smart cities.
• To achieve knowledge exchange, maximization of EU investments, advancement beyond the state of art through clustering with other European initiatives and platforms.
• To transfer, upscale and sustain best practices 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.