Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · 23d

🌍 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.

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Sep 11

🌍 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.

Copernicus ECMWF @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social · Sep 10

Have you explored the August 2025 #C3S Climate Bulletin? It was the third-warmest August globally on record, with southwestern Europe experiencing the third consecutive month of intense summer heatwaves, fueling wildfires in some parts of the region.

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Sep 5

❓ 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

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.

UrbanAIR | Digital Twin for Urban Climate Action

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Sep 5

🌆 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

1

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 31

🔥 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 integrates with Destination Earth to help cities tackle air pollution & heat stress through AI-powered digital twin technology.

www.urbanair-project.eu

1 4

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 24

🏙️ 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

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 19

🏙️ 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. 🌬️

Green Potential Map: UrbanAIR's Journey to Greener Cities

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 14

🌿 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...

The Green Potential Map is a co-designed tool emerging from UrbanAIR’s collaboration with the City of Antwerp. It combines environmental modelling and behavioural insights to support urban greening de...

www.urbanair-project.eu

Destination Earth Data Lake - Destination Earth

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 10

🏙️ 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.

1 1

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 6

🔓 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-...

Data access harmonisation of Digital Twins data and federated providers such as ESA, EUMETSAT, ECMWF, Copernicus and many other sources. Big data

destination-earth.eu

1

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 3

resilientcitiesnetwork.org

Resilient Cities Network - Home - Resilient Cities Network

resilientcitiesnetwork.org

Meet the Partner: Bern University of Applied Sciences – Artificial Intelligence for Weather, Climate and Energy

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Aug 3

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. 🌍

1 1

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 29

👋 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...

Berner Fachhochschule BFH is a trilingual Swiss university with 600 professors, 8,000 students, and 27 master’s degree programmes. The university has strong research collaborations with industry and t...

Meet the Partner: SMHI – Providing Weather and Climate Data for Urban Planning

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 22

👋 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...

About SMHI SMHI is an expert agency under the Ministry of Climate and Enterprise in Sweden. With a global outlook, SMHI has a vital mission to forecast changes in weather, water, and climate.

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 21

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 the Partner: Future Needs – Leading Communication and Uptake in UrbanAIR

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 17

👋 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...

About Future Needs Future Needs is an interdisciplinary communication and social science research SME based in Cyprus. Its team combines expertise in science communication, inclusive digital service d...

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 14

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 Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 11

🚀 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 🙏

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.

Reposted by UrbanAIR Project

TerraDT @terradt.bsky.social · Jul 10

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 the Partner: Météo-France – Providing Forcing Data for Urban Simulations

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 9

👋 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...

About Météo-France METEO FRANCE is the French public expert in weather and climate. Hence, it is responsible for weather forecasting, preserving records of past climate, and studying future climate tr...

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jul 2

Progress in LES modelling at urban scale with Meso-NH 🌍

The LAERO team at Univ. of Toulouse is running high-res urban simulations with Meso-NH—part of UrbanAIR’s role in the DestinE Digital Twin.

𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞
Antwerp during a heatwave 🌡️

𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬
✔️ Model setup
✔️ Meteorological data
✔️ Performance testing

4

UrbanAIR Project @urbanair.bsky.social · Jun 27

🌍 UrbanAIR at the 4th DestinE User eXchange
📍 Vienna, 25–26 June 2025

Great to see Natalie Theeuwes from @knmi.nl present UrbanAIR at @esa.int Living Planet Symposium.

She used a user journey to show how we'll use #DestinationEarth infrastructure and build upon its services for our target users.

Natalie Theeuwes from KNMI presenting at the 𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐄 𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐗𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 during ESA's Living Planet Symposium.