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LIFE ASTI Final Conference

The Final Conference of the LIFE ASTI project will be held as a hybrid event on 19 May at the Thessaloniki City Hall. The conference will be focused on the final results and achievements of LIFE ASTI project. The agenda will be announced soon, so stay tuned!

LIFE ASTI presented in Thessaloniki through a series of informative and educational events

The Municipality of Thessaloniki has successfully organised a series of informative and educational events within the broader framework of the LIFE ASTI project “Implementation of a forecAsting System for urban heaT Island effect for the development of urban adaptation strategies”. The events took place in the multi-purpose hall “Manolis Anagnostakis” of the Thessaloniki City Hall. The main goal of these events was to present the results of the LIFE ASTI Project including the LIFE ASTI System Platform and the smartphone application for iOS and Android. The Municipality’s plan to counter the Urban Heat Island phenomenon was also presented. The final results of the project can be viewed at the LIFE ASTI webpage https://lifeasti.eu/.

At the start of the events, the vice mayor of Thessaloniki for finances, also in charge of Urban Resilience, Mr. Michail Koupkas, addressed participants and emphasised the proactive role of the Municipality of Thessaloniki regarding major issues such as environmental protection, climate crisis and urban resilience. Greetings to the participants of the event, were also addressed by the vice mayor in charge of the environment, green spaces, and volunteering of the Municipality of Pavlos Melas, Mr. Sakis Lazaridis, as well as the Dean of the School of Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Professor Chara-Myrto-Agapi Charalampous. The event was attended physically and remotely by 60 people in total. You can watch the video of the event HERE.

Presenting the LIFE ASTI project at the international workshop of LIFE HEATLAND

The LIFE ASTI project and the effort of monitoring the Urban Heat Island effect, were presented on 3 November 2021 at the international workshop of the LIFE HEATLAND project, titled “Preparing our cities for climate challenges and improving the quality of life”, by Dr. Stavros Keppas, a Research Associate in the Laboratory of Atmosphere, School of Physics, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The webinar aimed to address the major issue of adaptation of the urban environment to climate change, in order to mitigate the negative effects that climate change and heat stress have on human health. You can watch the video of the workshop HERE.

Urban Heat Island Adaptation Strategies assessment report

A report assessing Urban Heat Island Adaptation Strategies has been published within the framework of the LIFE ASTI project. The report examines specific adaptation strategies for the cities of Thessaloniki and Rome, while also presenting an overview of the modeling system and downscaling algorithm developed under LIFE ASTI. The report describes the tools and methods that were used as well as the results obtained for the two cities. Find the report HERE.

The LIFE ASTI report on the local pilot actions for Thessaloniki and Rome is now available

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has published an interesting LIFE ASTI report on the local pilot actions for Thessaloniki and Rome. The work aims to develop and evaluate pilot actions on local level, which will serve as case studies for future reference. The pilot actions used were either actual interventions planned or completed for Thessaloniki or theoretical one, for the city of Rome. The pilot actions were evaluated by combining data of a weather forecasting model and observational data from local weather stations. A new modeling algorithm has been created, that can forecast the effects of the Urban Heat Island in finer spatial resolution, within each city. This tool can be manipulated to give results for different conditions of land use. As a result, it can be used to evaluate and plan future actions, at the city level, that can help mitigate the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. You may find the Report HERE.

LIFE ASTI Report: Good Practice Guidebook

The LIFE ASTI project has published its Good Practice Guidebook in which the context of the project's work for combating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) and increasing resilience to heat is presented. The report describes the UHI phenomenon over Europe and especially over the Mediterranean region, setting out the available techniques for studying and analysing the effect. LIFE ASTI’s good practices regarding the systems developed are presented, as well as possible solutions and examples of excellence that can be adopted in practice by all EU cities facing UHI impacts, especially in the Mediterranean. The report concludes with the project’s results and financial tools for Green Infrastructure funding. You may find the Report HERE.

How will climate change will affect the climate of Thessaloniki by 2100

Climate change will cause a further increase of temperatures in Thessaloniki of 0.6 - 1.5 °C by 2050 and 2.6 - 4.5 °C by 2100. This will make the already warm city even warmer, causing even more discomfort to its inhabitants. This means that in the urban fabric of Thessaloniki, the number of heat wave days is expected to double by 2050, while by 2100 it will increase 12 times, reaching 32 days per year. These are the results of the simulations performed by meteorologist Dr. Stavros Keppas, based on the worst-case scenario of the evolution of greenhouse gases emissions. Dr. Keppas is a researcher at the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, School of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The objective of this research work, which is part of the LIFE ASTI project, is to study extreme heat waves in the current and future climate, to analyse the microclimate of urban areas and to investigate green interventions. You can read the relevant article at grtimes.gr HERE

Featured Infographic: The urban regeneration of Thessaloniki

The LIFE ASTI (Implementation of a forecAstingSystem for urban heaT Island effect for the development of urban adaptation strategies) project focuses on addressing the impact of the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) on human mortality, by developing and evaluating a system of numerical models that will lead to the short-term forecasting and future projection of the UHIE phenomenon in two Mediterranean cities: Thessaloniki and Rome.The project is co-funded by the LIFE 2014-2020 Programme, with a 36-month implementation period.

Project Partners

The LIFE ASTI partnership has established networks at the EU level, including Institutions, Organisations, Municipalities and other local/regional authorities. All partners have been involved in previous and current EU projects and are fully committed to the successful implementation of the Project.

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