4 - BREATHE

Accurate estimates of GHG reduction and urban microclimate improvement to evaluate alternative green infrastructure strategies (urban trees, parks and open green spaces, building-integrated vegetation). Holistic assessment of urban greening benefits and sustainability through life cycle thinking approach, considering both existing vegetation and introduction of new greenery in compact areas.

• Task 4.1: calibration of a methodology to assess the sustainability level of urban environment in terms of GHG emissions using the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach; review of novel strategies applied at the global level for urban heat and GHG emissions reduction.
• Task 4.2: in situ and laboratory evaluation of the emissions in atmosphere on case studies; development, evaluation and proposal of urban sustainability strategies based on environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social LCA (S-LCA).
• Task 4.3: real scale testing and assessment of proposed solutions at ENVI by monitoring, reporting and verifying the carbon dioxide emissions in the urban network; translating the results in different urban environments; adjusting and comparing the results at UNIBO’s Lab.
• Task 4.4: Full characterization of green infrastructure strategies for urban microclimate improvement including retrofitting of existing systems. Development of an integrated decision-making platform to monitor and maintain GHG emissions and urban heat at desired levels.

• Screening of urban environment monitoring systems and specifications for quality sensing and data management.
• Key requirements for the decision support (DS) systems and integration of LCT indicators in the DS software, registering real time performance and effects of adaptation.
• Design of a sustainability DS platform, to be used for integrated analyses with combined tools.

Host Institution

Agricultural University of Athens AUA

Supervisors

Thomas Bartzanas, Dafni Avgoustaki – AUA, Greece

Stavros Vlachos – ENVI, Greece

Patriza Tassinari, Daniele Torreggiani – UNIBO, Italy

Address

Agricultural University of Athens, AUA

Geoponiko Panepistimion Athinon

Iera Odos 75, Athina 11855, Greece

Contacts

t.bartzanas@aua.gr