Towards climate-resilient cities: Co-creating tools & services for local action
25. June 13:45 - 15.00
As urban centers across Europe confront the escalating impacts of climate change, cities are increasingly turning to innovative, co-created solutions to build resilience. Yet, despite growing awareness of the need for action, significant gaps remain in turning climate policies into scalable, locally-relevant tools that engage communities and ensure long-term sustainability.
This session delves into the transformative role of co-creation—the collaborative process of designing climate resilience tools and services with local communities, city stakeholders, and experts. By integrating scientific knowledge with local insights, these tools have the potential to bridge the gap between policy and practice, creating more effective climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. But how can these tools be institutionalized within cities’ governance structures? And how can they be scaled to ensure impact beyond pilot areas?
Drawing from key European-funded projects such as LOCALISED, REACHOUT, RethinkAction, and Urban Climate Resilience Program (UCRP), we will explore practical experiences and lessons learned from co-creating urban resilience tools. These projects have exemplified how effective multi-level governance, partnerships with local communities, and EU-level support structures are crucial to turning resilient urban strategies into reality. With specific examples from cities like Berlin, Greater Manchester, Milan, the session will highlight strategies for engaging local communities, scaling solutions, and institutionalizing resilience tools for long-term impact.
As cities strive for adaptation strategies that are both innovative and inclusive, we will examine the role of multi-level governance—the coordination between local, national, and EU actors in scaling and supporting these efforts. By sharing real-world examples, this session will offer practical insights into overcoming the barriers of data integration, policy alignment, and sustaining local action.
Speakers
Resilience Focal Point, Barcelona City Council
Eduard Carrasco, Resilience Focal Point, Barcelona City Council
Eduard is a civil engineer with over 15 years in public service, juggling infrastructure projects, urban chaos, and political headaches — all in the name of making Barcelona a bit more resilient (or at least less breakable).
He ran the city’s Operations Center, advised on resilience strategy, and is now elbow-deep in the Climate Master Plan, making sure adaptation and resilience aren't just buzzwords but actually land on the ground.
He also keeps Barcelona connected with the international urban resilience scene, working with partners from UN-Habitat, UNDRR, Resilient Cities Network, and others committed to making cities future-ready.
Believer in cooperation, shared learning, and good beer — especially after a long day of “multilevel governance”.
Associate - Business Developer Manager, MVRDV
MariA Stamati, Associate - Business Developer Manager, MVRDV
Maria Stamati is an Associate - Business Development Manager at MVRDV with responsibility for Urban Planning, and is also a skilled architect and urban planner, having worked on and lead urban, research, and strategic projects. With more than a decade of experience, Maria has been involved in variety of urban and research projects, including the Manifesta 13 expo for Marseille, Oceanside, a coastal resilience and sand retention project in Southern California, and Luxemburg in Transition, a winning proposal for a competition to create the vision of the country’s transition to zero-carbon society. She has also extensively worked in urban development projects such as the winning proposal of M-Park in Munich, Almere Floriade Expo and led the redevelopment proposal for Thessaloniki Urban Port, a project that focuses on creating a mixed-use hub that revitalizes the waterfront of the port and the city.
Jr. Research/Advisor - Climate Adaptation, Deltares
Sarah Wright, Jr. Research/Advisor - Climate Adaptation, Deltares
Sarah Wright is a researcher/advisor in the field of climate change adaptation and water management at Deltares, where she focuses on connecting science to policy and decision-making in the field of climate adaptation. Her work largely involves developing, applying and analysing climate services such as (semi)quantitative decision support tools and adaptive planning workshops in projects such as REACHOUT and ClimateEurope2. She also recently co-led the development of a 'generic adaptation modelling framework' for Destination Earth, supporting modellers in building modelling systems to inform adaptation decision-making.
Skilled in facilitation and stakeholder engagement, Sarah enjoys working creatively to combine different perspectives and knowledge, helping to deal with future uncertainty and handle the inherent complexity and interconnectedness of climate adaptation in practice.
Project Manager, City of Milan
Eleonora Esposito, Project Manager, City of Milan
Eleonora Esposito is a geographer with experience in the management of environmental projects in support of public administrations. She is responsible for fundraising, project management activities and coordination of multidisciplinary working groups. She currently works for the Municipality of Milan, where she manages projects on climate mitigation and adaptation.
Project Assistant - UP2030, City of Milan
Sarah Tosca LevyA, Project Assistant - UP2030, City of Milan
Sarah Tosca Levy is an urbanist and political scientist. She has collaborated with local governments in France and Italy, and European stakeholders on sustainable and inclusive urbanism.She is currently working within the Urban Resilience Department of the City of Milan (Italy) on a variety of projects linked to mitigation and adaptation of cities to climate change.
Program Manager City Climate & Encironment, LINKS Foundation
Giulia Melis, Program Manager City Climate & Encironment, LINKS Foundation
Giulia Melis, Architect and urban planner, is Program manager of the ‘City, climate& environment’ research program at LINKS Foundation in the Future Cities and Communities domain. She is leading several projects of strategic planning and urban regeneration, from European to local level. Her main research interests include urban justice, participatory methods, spatial decision support system (sDSS), smart solutions for sustainability in urban areas, impacts of the built environment on citizens' health and inequalities, climate justice. She is currently coordinating the Just Streets (https://www.linkedin.com/company/juststreets/) project under the Mission Cities - Horizon Europe programme.
Architect, Veldacademie
Otto Trienekens, Architect, Veldacademie
Otto Trienekens is an architect and entrepreneur driven by a deep ambition to create healthier cities. He is co-founder of Veldacademie and has been active in the field of inner-city renewal since graduating from the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. In his work, he collaborates with residents, local stakeholders, and professionals to address socio-spatial and sustainability challenges. A central focus of his projects is the decentralisation and redesign of urban service systems (care, education, welfare, and sports). As co-founder and board member of the Handelscompagnie Sluisjesdijk Foundation, he is involved in participatory redevelopment and placemaking of industrial heritage sites. Through his design firm Vertex Architecture and Urbanism, he focuses on innovative housing and public building projects, especially in the health and care sector. Otto also teaches at TU Delft and regularly lectures at national and international universities.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority, VCFSE Programme Manager
Sulafa Abushal, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, VCFSE Programme Manager
Sulafa Abushal is the VCFSE Programme Manager for the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum, leading engagement with the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector on emergency preparedness. With a background in community development, she ensures local voices shape Greater Manchester’s resilience planning.
Moderator
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
CHRISTIANE Walter, Project Coordinator (PIK)
With a background in literature, media science, and sociology, Christiane combines her academic expertise with over 15 years of experience managing national and international projects at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Since 2017 she coordinates the Urban Transformations group. Her scientific focus is on social science research, especially on participation, just transition, and equity. Latest projects were interdisciplinary with strong co-creation towards measures to be taken to reach the net-zero climate target without ignoring the social impacts on lifestyles, vulnerable groups and other questions around equity and justice as well as inclusive processes on all levels and in communication with various stakeholders.
Lead, Programs, Climate & Health, Resilient Cities Network
Karl Astbury, Lead, Programs, Climate & Health, Resilient Cities Network
Karl Astbury leads the implementation of two flagship global initiatives at the Resilient Cities Network: the Urban Community Resilience Program - Resilience for Communities, funded by the Z Zurich Foundation, and Urban Pulse: Climate, Health, and Equity in Action.