Last Friday, the RESIST project organised a webinar 'Digital transition in climate change adaptation', which aimed at presenting a novel combination of digital technologies for climate change adaptation objectives.

The event gathered a wide European audience of more than 100 participants, and it marked the official launch of the RESIST Community of Interest run by ERRIN. In the long term, the Community will allow European regional and local ecosystems, as well as other external partners, to gain valuable insights into solutions for climate resilience developed under the RESIST project. The Regions will also be able to participate in mutual learning activities and directly follow the implementation processes in RESIST regions. The open activities will be organised on a bi-yearly basis and will invite additional regions and organisations to benefit from the latest project’s developments.

At the event, RESIST partners AugmentCity, SINTEF, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), HYDS and KU Leuven presented the digital solutions implemented within the project: graphical digital twins, digital shepherd, XR/VR simulations, early warning systems and interactive metadata catalogue for climate adaptation solutions.

Early Warning Systems for climate-induced hazards - Catalonia

The RESIST LSD3 Catalonia proposes solutions specialised for (pre)emergency management with the decision support digital tools and inclusive risk communication and citizen participation in Civil Protection, aiming to enhance capacity building on natural risk awareness and proactive preparedness in emergency management due to extreme weather and climate risks.  The Argos platform aims to help with proactive risk management (replacing reactive approach) on regional and local levels.

The regional emergency management in Catalonia uses a real-time early warning system built with forecasting algorithms and products, which is helpful in overviewing and coordinating regional actions. However, regarding emergency management at the city or municipal levels, local adaptation planning requires better guidance and communication with regional civil protection and local decision-makers, including the first and second responders, to help as many affected citizens as possible in an emergency.

The RESIST LSD3 solutions have been developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration based on the quintuple helix approach among six partners. Learn more about the region here. Read about the solution and the transfer methodology here.

Blekinge’s immersive communication through XR/VR simulation - Blekinge

Due to present climate hazards, including high water rise, floods and droughts, the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), together with the Blekinge region, has been working on using extended and virtual reality to assess possible scenarios, raise awareness and communicate about climate change and prepare a timely and effective response to the upcoming climate risks.

The Pop-up Climate Tech Tour, launched by Region Blekinge and BTH, aims to raise awareness of climate risks among citizens and to support local authorities in planning and designing climate adaptation solutions. The Tour, developed by mechanical engineering students from BTH, features four examples that demonstrate how immersive technologies can communicate climate mitigation and adaptation work in an engaging and memorable manner. 

Read more about the region here. More information about the solutions and activities in RESIST can be found here.

The regional solutions will be transferred to other partner regions with the support of ERRIN, and then spread across Europe. The Transfer Plans can be found at the bottom of this page.

Horizontal partners supporting regions:

Graphical digital twin solutions for planning and engagement

AugmentCity, one of the horizontal partners of RESIST (alongside ERRIN, KU Leuven, SINTEF) which provides regions with technology to boost resilience. The Graphical Digital Twin (GDT) is the main visualisation tool to show pilot areas, data, problems and solutions digitally, enhancing the possibilities in the real world.

 Digital twins can model how different climate change scenarios will impact societal and environmental systems in the real world. These digital models and predictions can then help develop more effective, targeted and financially sound climate solutions and strategies. The 100 innovative solutions RESIST will help bring to the market will be digitally simulated to allow for rigorous testing, ensure stakeholders can engage with them throughout the process, and avoid unnecessary costs and undesired outcomes when applying the solutions in reality. Find out more here.

Digital Shepherd guiding the regions

SINTEF’s digital shepherd is a platform tailor-made for RESIST (in prototype stage) and it helps and guides users to find, transform and prepare data for uploading into the Graphical Digital Twin and other technologies. It is the first step for the region representatives towards using the RESIST Graphical Digital Twin ecosystem, using catalogue of data developed by KU Leuven.

 Its main goal is to facilitate actions like: ​

• providing training information about the GDT​
• providing guidance on the GDTs’ data formats ​
• enabling onboarding data for climate-risk scenarios​
• storing these datasets in a project database

Interactive metadata catalogue for climate adaptation solutions

KU Leuven has been developing a structured system that collects, organises, and provides access to metadata about climate adaptation solutions. The metadata catalogue stores structured information, including key details like solution type, location, goal, and supporting ecosystem services.​ It provides links to associated datasets and technologies rather than storing them directly, ensuring easy access to relevant data and tools.​ The Graphical User Interface (GUI) enables users to search, filter, and visualise the metadata catalogue interactively.

The catalogue contains data related to various themes, such as:

• Nature-Based & Ecosystem-Based Approaches,
• Physical & Technological Solutions,
• Early warning systems for extreme weather events​,
• Knowledge & Behavioral Change​ e.g. Strengthening stakeholder engagement & collaboration​,
• Governance & Institutional Approaches​ e.g. Blue-Green Factor (BGF) as a policy tool​
• Economic & Financial Strategies​ like Cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of solutions​.

During the webinar, the Regions4Climate project presented their Urban Heat Island (UHI) modelling examples from three regions of the project and their integration into the digital twins. RESIST has been exploring linkages with many European projects focusing on climate-related challenges and will continue building on their ongoing activities.

The video recording from the webinar and the presentations with detailed information about the solutions will be soon available on the RESIST website.