VARCITIES Project

Done in partnership with:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020.

_{VARCITIES is an ambitious project that acknowledges the complexity and challenges of future cities.}

In an increasingly urbanized world, cities face several challenges and threats and struggle to propose credible urban futures and new opportunities for their citizens. VARCITIES is an ambitious project that puts the citizens and the “human communities” at the center of future cities’ vision, in the belief that future cities should become fully human-centered.

The project officially started in September 2020 and it will last until February 2025. The Consortium is composed of 25 partners under the lead of the Telecommunication System Institute (TSI). Seven Pilot Cities will test and implement a series of innovative nature-based actions.

Vision

The vision of VARCITIES is to implement real, visionary ideas and add value by establishing sustainable models for increasing the health and well-being of citizens: children, young people, middle-aged, and the elderly, who are exposed to diverse climatic conditions and challenges in and around Europe. VARCITIES sets the ambitious target to advance innovation across different urban scales by fully exploiting nature-based solutions from a digital, social, and cultural perspective. Public spaces are envisioned as people-centered areas that support creativity, inclusivity, health, and happiness for the citizens.

The specific objectives of the project are:

Design visionary nature-based solutions which contribute to the shaping of future cities and the well–being of citizens in seven European cities.
Monitor and assess the sustainability and the impact of interventions through advanced KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for health and well-being.
Improve the sustainable transition to smart and future cities by creating a framework of locally adapted GBF (Governance, Business, Financing) models.
Include various stakeholders in the co-design process and inspire sustainable and resilient future smart cities.
Achieve knowledge exchange, maximum EU investments, and advancement beyond the state of the art through clustering with other European initiatives and platforms.
Transfer, upscale and sustain best practices from VARCITIES through the development of a Healthy Cities Helix.

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Cities like Leuven in Belgium are becoming smarter with the help of IoT.

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VARCITIES has identified seven European municipalities as the Pilot Cities of the project. Together we will implement integrated and sustainable initiatives that increase the health and well-being of citizens, supporting both municipal actions and local SMEs in meeting credible opportunities to grow and generate revenues. Each Pilot City has identified a pilot site for implementing local actions.

The seven Pilot Cities are Castelfranco Veneto (Italy), Chania (Greece), Dundalk (Ireland), Gzira (Malta), Leuven (Belgium), Novo mesto (Slovenia) and Skellefteå (Sweden). These cities differ in geography, climate conditions, and the challenges they face, but share the same vision of a healthier and sustainable urban future.

The approach prioritizes an integrative, trans-disciplinary focus that considers the entire ecosystem in its complexity, including all members of society. Recognizing the necessity for nature-based approaches to be inevitably individual and context-specific. For this reason, each Pilot City is directly informed by the unique and respective needs of the local society, the specific contextual evolution, and the strategic municipal policies.

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Senzemo sensors are deployed across the 7 cities.

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VARCITIES’ actions aim to deliver a multitude of interventions, methods, and innovative practices based on an extendable platform, measurement framework, and methodology, supported by customizable and extendable plugin solutions. Our nature-based solutions interventions aim at becoming an underlying customizable fabric of an entire ecosystem of fully connected intelligent sensors and devices, capable of delivering several co-benefits, transforming the daily lives of European citizens.

We expect to reach the following impact:

High-quality and multifunctional public spaces, converted into safe, inclusive, and accessible places to ensure citizens’ Health and well-being.
Co-design and participatory planning and governance in Pilot Cities and follower cities with digital, social, and cultural dimensions.
Network with the Healthy Cities Helix and Ambassadors for gender dimensions.
Innovative monitoring and KPIs.
Our SMEs will support the “capitalization of over 30 years of investment in transnational EU research and innovation on sustainable urban development”.
New business opportunities