The Climate-KIC Climathon is a global 24-hour climate change event which will take place simultaneously in major cities around the world on October 28th, 2016. Climathon brings together the challenges of the world’s cities with the people who have the passion and ability to solve them. Participants gather for 24 hours to engage in a climate-related problem solving workshop. City citizens around the world will get to take direct climate action in their own cities by coming up with innovative solutions to local climate change problems. 121 cities from 32 countries will take part in the 2016 edition. Venezia, Bologna, Latina and Torino are the Italian cities joining Climathon this year.

The challenge of Venice Climathon 2016: “Cultural heritage in a changing climate: exploring innovative and nature-based solution to cope with heatwaves”

Venice is one of the World Heritage sites most at threat from the impacts of current and expected climate change. Rising sea level, exacerbated by local subsidence, and extreme temperatures are among the main hazards to be faced by the city and its inhabitants. Little attention has been drawn so far on how to enhance the city’s coping and adaptive capacity with respect to heatwaves. Our Climathon will therefore address the following question:

‘What kind of energy-efficient solutions can be imagined to increase Venice resilience to heatwaves?’

We will adopt a two-fold perspective. On the one side, we will focus on energy-efficient solutions for cooling systems in (historical) buildings. Types of approaches falling in this category include, but are not limited to, domotic systems, interior architectural projects, and information campaigns. On the other side, we will explore the potential of nature-based solutions, to reduce the urban heat island effect.

Our approach will be highly trans-disciplinary, combining urban planning, architecture, and business perspectives, among others. Both students and professionals are welcomed to apply!

Who can participate

Everyone can participate: citizens, students, professionals, developers, experts and passionate in IT, marketing, design, communication, etc. You can register as a group or as an individual. Participation is open to both participants with existing ideas, as well as to participants that still need to develop potential solutions.