Urban heat island study at the locality of Gzira.
With the context of dense build-up areas and a need for open spaces, it is challenging for sustainable development to get started. The city contexts are real-estate overdevelopment, narrow street, and car-oriented, which all causes severe urban heat island. With monitoring tools, the city found intensified solar radiation (heat bomb) and from cars, heat capture at night in built-up areas. This leads to implementing nature-based solutions for resilience for citizens' well-being.
The Research Unit of the Gzira Local Council and researchers from the University of Malta came together with foreign partners from the consortium for the EU Horizon2020 projects: VARCITIES, GoGreen, and JUSTNature, conducted the locality-based study to reduce the urban heat island with nature-based solutions. Using data from Earth Observation Satellites and street-level scientific equipment, we can collect temperature and air quality data all the time. Notably, the data can be visualised to inform policy and decision-makers.
This video is featured in the European Union Committee of the Regions (CoR) 9th Summit Marseille Expo. The study is made using the award-winning scientific/operational framework PHASE-1 (PH-1). The Research Innovation Unit uses PH-1 as the bases of all European Commission Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe projects for the locality of Gzira.
Editor: Fabian Borg,
Producer: Research Innovation Unit