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The report “Effects of Air Temperature Modified by Vulnerability Factors” was prepared as a milestone by researchers in the EU Project EXHAUSTION*. This report summarises the evidence on the interactive effects of high air temperature and various vulnerability factors, including the environmental, socio-economic, and individual behavioral factors on heart- and lung-related deaths and diseases (cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity) across Europe. The study was conducted at the city, small-area (e.g., municipalities), and individual level. The findings show a greater vulnerability to heat for people living in urban areas with dense population, high air pollution levels, low coverage of green spaces, as well as areas with low Gross Domestic Product. Moreover, people with chronic pre-existing diseases and the elderly were found to be at greater risk. The findings highlight the urgent need to improve the urban environment as well as the health status and living conditions in European cities to contrast the impacts of heat and future climate change. This report alerts stakeholders and policymakers that targeted climate change adaptation measures need to be considered to protect vulnerable population and thereby increase European resilience to climate change.

The implementation of energy communities represents a cross-disciplinary phenomenon that has the potential to support the energy transition while fostering citizens' participation throughout the energy system and their exploitation of renewables. An important role is played by online information sources in engaging people in this process and increasing their awareness of associated benefits. In this view, this work analyses online news data on energy communities to understand people's awareness and the media importance of this topic. We use the Semantic Brand Score (SBS) indicator as an innovative measure of semantic importance, combining social network analysis and text mining methods. Results show different importance trends for energy communities and other energy and society-related topics, also allowing the identification of their connections. Our approach gives evidence to information gaps and possible actions that could be taken to promote a low-carbon energy transition.

A medida que las ciudades de África Oriental sigan creciendo, también lo hará la demanda de carbón vegetal, el combustible urbano preferido de la región, lo que ejercerá una presión cada vez mayor sobre los paisajes rurales donde se produce. ¿Cómo se puede hacer sostenible la producción y el suministro de carbón vegetal? ¿Cuáles son las implicaciones de las políticas y prácticas sostenibles de carbón vegetal para lograr una vía baja en carbono y proteger el medio ambiente? Este documento presenta una investigación de estudio de caso centrada en el condado de Kitui, una de las principales zonas de producción de carbón vegetal en Kenia. El riesgo y la incertidumbre de las políticas sostenibles de carbón vegetal en Kitui se evaluaron utilizando métodos complementarios de talleres con las partes interesadas, entrevistas con informantes y modelos basados en agentes. Este enfoque interdisciplinario combinó la investigación de políticas y el modelado de simulación, donde las perspectivas y los datos locales se incluyeron directamente en el modelado. Estos métodos facilitaron la crítica del comportamiento relacionado con la agencia y la corrupción. Las partes interesadas valoraron la capacidad de acceder a información detallada sobre microinteracciones y considerar el desempeño de las políticas con respecto tanto a los flujos financieros como a la extracción de biomasa. Alors que les villes d'Afrique de l'Est continuent de croître, la demande de charbon de bois – le carburant urbain préféré de la région – exercera une pression croissante sur les paysages ruraux où il est produit. Comment rendre la production et l'approvisionnement en charbon durables ? Quelles sont les implications des politiques et des pratiques de charbon de bois durable pour parvenir à une voie à faible émission de carbone et protéger l'environnement ? Cet article présente des études de cas axées sur le comté de Kitui, l'une des principales zones de production de charbon de bois au Kenya. Les risques et l'incertitude des politiques de charbon de bois durable à Kitui ont été évalués à l'aide de méthodes complémentaires d'ateliers avec les parties prenantes, d'entretiens avec les informateurs et de modélisation basée sur les agents. Cette approche interdisciplinaire combinait la recherche sur les politiques et la modélisation par simulation, où les perspectives et les données locales étaient directement incluses dans la modélisation. Ces méthodes ont facilité la critique des comportements concernant l'agence et la corruption. Les parties prenantes ont apprécié la possibilité d'accéder à des informations détaillées sur les micro-interactions et d'examiner les performances des politiques en matière de flux financiers et d'extraction de la biomasse. As cities in East Africa keep growing, so too will demand for charcoal – the region's preferred urban fuel – placing increasing pressure on rural landscapes where it is produced. How can charcoal production and supply be made sustainable? What are the implications of sustainable charcoal policies and practices for achieving a low-carbon pathway and protecting the environment? This paper presents case study research focusing on Kitui County, one of the main charcoal production areas in Kenya. Risk and uncertainty of sustainable charcoal policies in Kitui were assessed using complementary methods of stakeholder workshops, informant interviews and agent-based modelling. This interdisciplinary approach combined policy research and simulation modelling, where local perspectives and data were included directly in the modelling. These methods facilitated critique of behaviour concerning agency and corruption. Stakeholders valued the ability to access detailed information on micro-interactions and consider policy performance regarding both financial flows and biomass extraction. ومع استمرار نمو المدن في شرق أفريقيا، فإن الطلب على الفحم – الوقود الحضري المفضل في المنطقة – سيزيد من الضغط على المناظر الطبيعية الريفية حيث يتم إنتاجه. كيف يمكن جعل إنتاج الفحم وتوريده مستدامين ؟ ما هي الآثار المترتبة على سياسات وممارسات الفحم المستدامة لتحقيق مسار منخفض الكربون وحماية البيئة ؟ تقدم هذه الورقة بحث دراسة حالة يركز على مقاطعة كيتوي، واحدة من مناطق إنتاج الفحم الرئيسية في كينيا. تم تقييم المخاطر وعدم اليقين في سياسات الفحم المستدامة في كيتوي باستخدام طرق تكميلية لورش عمل أصحاب المصلحة ومقابلات المخبرين والنمذجة القائمة على الوكيل. جمع هذا النهج متعدد التخصصات بين أبحاث السياسات ونمذجة المحاكاة، حيث تم تضمين وجهات النظر والبيانات المحلية مباشرة في النمذجة. سهلت هذه الأساليب نقد السلوك المتعلق بالوكالة والفساد. وقدر أصحاب المصلحة القدرة على الوصول إلى معلومات مفصلة عن التفاعلات الصغيرة والنظر في أداء السياسات فيما يتعلق بكل من التدفقات المالية واستخراج الكتلة الحيوية.

Fire danger indices are descriptors of fire potential in a large area, and combine a few variables that affect the initiation, spread and control of forest fires. The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is one of the most widely used fire danger indices in the world, and it is built upon instantaneous values of temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity at noon, together with 24 hourly accumulated precipitation. However, the scarcity of appropriate data has motivated the use of daily mean values as surrogates of the instantaneous ones in several studies that aimed to assess the impact of global warming on fire. In this paper we test the sensitivity of FWI values to both instantaneous and daily mean values, analyzing their effect on mean seasonal fire danger (seasonal severity rating, SSR) and extreme fire danger conditions (90th percentile, FWI90, and FWI>30, FOT30), with a special focus on its influence in climate change impact studies. To this aim, we analyzed reanalysis and regional climate model (RCM) simulations, and compared the resulting instantaneous and daily mean versions both in the present climate and in a future scenario. In particular, we were interested in determining the effect of these datasets on the projected changes obtained for the mean and extreme seasonal fire danger conditions in future climate scenarios, as given by a RCM. Overall, our results warn against the use of daily mean data for the computation of present and future fire danger conditions. Daily mean data lead to systematic negative biases of fire danger calculations. Although the mean seasonal fire danger indices might be corrected to compensate for this bias, fire danger extremes (FWI90 and specially FOT30) cannot be reliably transformed to accommodate the spatial pattern and magnitude of their respective instantaneous versions, leading to inconsistent results when projected into the future. As a result, we advocate caution when using daily mean data and strongly recommend the application of the standard definition for its calculation as closely as possible. Threshold-dependent indices derived from FWI are not reliably represented by the daily mean version and thus can neither be applied for the estimation of future fire danger season length and severity, nor for the estimation of future extreme events. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 243888 (FUME Project). J.F. acknowledges nancial support from the Spanish R&D&I programme through grant CGL2010-22158-C02 (CORWES project). The ESCENA project (200800050084265) of the Spanish \Strategic action on energy and climate change" provided the WRF RCM simulation used in this study. We acknowledge three anonymous referees for their useful comments that helped to improve the original manuscript.

Open Data that is labelled as ATELIER and provides important information regarding energy transition and smart energy deployment in the City of Bilbao. This dataset will be enlarge along the project life

Efficient vehicle routing is a major concern for any supply chain, especially when dealing with last-mile deliveries in highly urbanized areas. In this paper problems considering last-mile delivery in areas with the restrictions of motorized traffic are described and different types of cargo bikes are reviewed. The paper describes methods developed in order to solve a combination of problems for cargo bicycle logistics, including efficient packing, routing and load-dependent speed constraints. Proposed models apply mathematical descriptions of problems, including the Knapsack Problem, Traveling Salesman Problem and Traveling Thief Problem. Based on synthetically generated data, we study the efficiency of the proposed algorithms. Models described in this paper are implemented in Python programming language and will be further developed and used for solving the problems of electric cargo bikes’ routing under real-world conditions.

Abstract This paper presents REACT-DECARB, an energy planning decarbonisation platform employing renewable energy sources coupled with storage for islands. The paper implements the energy scenario creation and economic evaluation steps of the platform on eight geographic islands in seven countries within the EU. Twenty-one technologically feasible energy scenarios, applicable to the specific conditions of each island, are specified and their economic assessment via a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) calculation is then performed. The main aim of this application is to verify the noted steps of the platform as well as to test its flexibility across geographically, socially and dimensionally disparate islands with various scenario generation methods. The results of the economic analysis show a wide variation of LCOE depending primarily on whether full island autonomy is assumed. In some cases the islands’ scenarios’ costs approach current market prices but are never below them; some scenarios are, however, below the current price of the island’s thermal generation. The sensitivity and uncertainty of the economic performance results’ and the variables used to calculate them are evaluated and discussed for two of the islands. The overall analysis and application has shown that the REACT-DECARB platform is suitable for different islands, regardless of location and size and can be useful for island energy planners.