@urbanair.bsky.social
Helping cities beat extreme heat and air pollution with digital twins that merge climate science and human behaviour. Funded by the EU #HorizonEU.
A huge high-five to our over 300 followers here on Bluesky! Your support means a lot to our team.
We're now over 1500 combined followers & counting! interested in learning more about our work?
➡️ Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/urba...
#UrbanairProject #HorizonEU #ThankYou
Our UrbanAIR partners from TU Delft presented our work at the 10th EMES Conference. Their talk showed how behavioural modelling can support community action on urban heat and help implement Nature-Based Solutions in Antwerp with VITO.
Full article: www.urbanair-project.eu/post/urbanai...
UrbanAIR joined the 2025 Catalan Congress on Air Quality as the new EU Directive reshapes how cities plan for cleaner air.
The @bsc-cns.bsky.social shared how UrbanAIR links science, health and vulnerability to guide fairer urban air policies.
Read more: www.linkedin.com/pulse/urbana...
🎥 The LAERO team at University of Toulouse, part of #UrbanAIR, is advancing high-resolution urban climate simulations with the Meso-NH model to study heatwaves and storms in #Paris, supporting data-driven planning for more resilient cities. #DestinationEarth #HorizonEU
11.11.2025 13:01 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
A busy European city street with people walking between shops and trams on a cool day. The image includes the text ‘#WorldCitiesDay’ and logos for the European Union and UrbanAIR, representing sustainable, people-centred urban development.
🏙️ #WorldCitiesDay 2025
When heat rises, city health becomes personal.
UrbanAIR is building people-centred smart cities where tech follows human need — helping Antwerp + Barcelona stay cleaner, cooler, and fairer.
Because resilience isn’t abstract. It’s shade, airflow, and time to act.
🌍Europe just had one of its most polluted summers on record: wildfire smoke, Saharan dust and ozone spikes pushed air beyond safe limits.
Cities need integrated models and tools to plan for extremes just like UrbanAIR's digital twins.
📊 Full CAMS brief: www.copernicus.eu/en/news/news...
Proud of our partners Cristina Carnerero and Álvaro Criado Romero from @bsc-cns.bsky.social. Tomorrow they join the roundtable “Generating scientific evidence to inform decision-making” at the Congrés de la Qualitat de l'Aire to discuss UrbanAIR and how science can improve air quality in Barcelona.💨
15.10.2025 14:49 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
UrbanAIR, @terradt.bsky.social & WeatherGenerator are teaming up to strengthen #DestinationEarth 🌍
From city-scale climate insights to global weather modelling, these sister projects are turning data into action.
Catch the highlights from our joint webinar 👇
www.urbanair-project.eu/post/urbanai...
Jorge Sousa from VITO stands beside a HARMO23 conference sign in Hamburg. The sign reads “HARMO23 – 23rd International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes,” organized by Universität Hamburg and Hereon.
At #HARMO23 in Hamburg, our partner Jorge Sousa from VITO shared results from Antwerp.
His presentation compared micro-scale air quality models & configurations to better understand air quality in Antwerp.
These models will power UrbanAIR digital twin for smarter, sustainable city decisions.
🚀 The 2nd issue of the UrbanAIR Newsletter #2 is live!
Highlights include:
1. Stakeholder meetings in Antwerp and Barcelona, shaping our tools to local needs
2. Access to the Destination Earth (DestinE) Data Lake
3. New website design
...and more!
📰 Read: www.linkedin.com/pulse/issue-...
🌍 What if cities could test plans before action?
UrbanAIR is co-designing next-gen digital twins with Barcelona and Antwerp to model heat, wind and pollution, use AI emulators, and capture citizen behaviour. Linked with DestinE.
Next tests in the learning cities of Bristol, Paris and Rotterdam.
🌍 Europe is breaking heat records. The latest #C3S Climate Bulletin shows climate extremes are today’s reality.
UrbanAIR takes action at street level with:
🏙️ Digital twins
🔍 Behavioural modelling
🤝 Co-creation
➡️ Building cooler, cleaner, safer cities with #DestinE.
An infographic on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA), created for the UrbanAIR project and TU Delft. At the top, a modern city skyline represents “Top Down Approaches,” including institutional models, agent-based models, and cross-sectoral integration. At the bottom, a neighbourhood with houses and trees represents “Bottom-Up Community Approach,” including neighbourhood-level actions, behavioural simulation, and nature-based solutions. In the centre, the text reads “Community Based Adaptation (CBA),” with a triangle showing justice, capacity, and responsibility. Arrows connect the city and neighbourhood, illustrating integration of approaches.
❓ Who protects us most during extreme heatwaves?
Not public systems, but households and neighbourhoods.
Researchers from TU Delft explore Community-Based Adaptation as a bottom-up way to build resilience and justice in climate action.
#ClimateAdaptation #CommunityResilience #TUdelft
🌆 How do winds move between buildings?
Our partners at NORCE use the Lattice Boltzmann Model with real wind data to run 100+ simulations.
The result?
High-resolution forecasts of urban airflow for planning, climate studies, and real-time city predictions. 🌬️
#UrbanClimate #WindModeling
🔥 Cities are heating up — but women, children, older adults, and low-income groups feel the heat first.
The UrbanAIR project studies these inequalities and uses scientific data to give planners tools for fairer, cooler, more resilient cities.
🌍 Learn more: www.urbanair-project.eu
#HorizonEU
🏙️ UrbanAIR is teaming up with DAFNI and STFC Scientific Computing to build digital twins that tackle air pollution, heat stress and climate resilience.
1️⃣ Their first milestone coming by the end of 2025! Stay tuned for updates and a live demonstration! ⚙️
#UrbanAIR #DigitalTwins #HorizonEurope
A narrow street in Toulouse.
🏙️ Cities face rising climate risks like heat, pollution and wildfires.
UrbanAIR helps designers build safer, more resilient cities using data, simulations and digital twins, with modelling support from our partners @CERFACS.
Smarter planning starts with better air insights. 🌬️
🌿 VITO’s Tree Potential Map is evolving into the Green Potential Map, blending climate science, health, and how people use green spaces. Still in development, it could guide where green has the most impact.
🔗 Read it on our website:
www.urbanair-project.eu/post/from-id...
🏙️ How do tall buildings shape city weather?
At the Boundary Layer and Turbulence Conference in Turin, our partners @meteofrance.com shared first results from UrbanAIR using the AROME model at 200 m and 100 m for Paris and Antwerp, testing effects of building height on boundary layer fields.
🔓 We’ve gained access to the Destination Earth Data Lake (DEDL)! 🎉
This unlocks high-res climate and urban simulations using massive datasets and ML. A big step forward for our digital twin work 🌍
🛰️ Part of the EU’s DestinE initiative.
🔗 Learn more: destination-earth.eu/destination-...
Powerful tools only matter if cities can truly use them. 🛠️
UrbanAIR, with the help of Resilient Cities Network, is co-developing digital twins with local teams to make them usable, relevant, and trusted.
Built from the ground up for those who need them most. 🌍
👋 Final spotlight in our partner series: Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH)
BFH supports UrbanAIR with emulation, super data generation, nowcasting, and uncertainty quantification to advance digital twin tools.
🔗 Read more: www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-p...
👋 Meet our Partner: Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI)
SMHI provides high-resolution forcing data for UrbanAIR’s urban simulations—adapting its weather prediction system to 100–200 m scale and subhourly output.
🔗 Read more: www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-p...
Snapshot of Abhilash Menon, PhD
SMHI’s team is now complete! 👏 We welcome Abhilash Menon, PhD, to the SMHI & UrbanAIR teams! 🎉 He'll work on turbulence modeling in the HARMONIE-AROME NWP system, focusing on 100–200 m simulations over urban areas. 🏙️🌬️
🔗 Details about Abhilash’s scientific and research profile here: lnkd.in/dFBE8fhB
👋 Meet our Partner: @futureneedseu.bsky.social
Future Needs leads communication & exploitation and supports stakeholder engagement to keep project results visible, user-driven, and ready for long-term impact.
🎥 Watch the video in the article to meet the team.
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-p...
Who are we really designing for? In #UrbanAIR, stakeholder mapping helps us co-create tools that are useful, used & usable — with real city actors, not ideal users. Inclusion, equity & relevance start with listening, mapping & co-production. 👂🌍
#ClimateTools #UrbanFutures #CoProduction
UrbanAIR partners enjoying a sunny afternoon in Rotterdam after the conference.
Su Li Heng, our partner from TU Delft, posing in front of the UrbanAIR poster
Sam Pickard from Barcelona Supercomputing Center speaking with ICUC12 attendees in front of the UrbanAIR poster.
🚀 UrbanAIR wrapped up a powerful week at #ICUC12 in Rotterdam
We shared our work on digital twins for the urban atmosphere, linking physics-based models, real-world data, and local planning needs 🌍🏙️
A big thank you to all our partners for their energy and contributions throughout the week 🙏
Many thanks to our speakers, panelists & participants for a productive discussion to drive forward the future of Earth system #DigitalTwins! Find more detailed insights from the sessions by checking out our LinkedIn posts here: tinyurl.com/3seazhxj
#DestinE @urbanair.bsky.social #WeatherGenerator
👋 Meet our Partner: @meteofrance.com
Météo-France brings advanced weather and climate expertise to UrbanAIR. Using the AROME model at 200m resolution, the team provides forcing data for urban simulations, helping cities plan with precision.
🔗 Read more: www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-p...
