Modular Real-Time Monitoring System Architecture for Materials and Technologies to Improve Urban Heat-Island Effect and Water Runoff in HE MULTICLIMACT

Given the threat of climate change and the associated growth in extreme events, it is imperative to improve the planning, design, and upgrading of the built environment at different scales to effectively adapt to current and future risks. Therefore, the MULTICLIMACT project (MULTI-faceted CLIMate adaptation ACTions to improve resilience, preparedness, and responsiveness of the built environment against multiple hazards at multiple scales) seeks to provide an integrated framework of tools to assist public actors and citizens at territorial, urban and individual building levels. At all these scales, real-time monitoring and early warning systems are seen as key tools to improve preparedness and responsiveness. At the urban level, the scale of this paper, it is considered a key issue that the built environment is nowadays often itself a source of climate vulnerability rather than a safe place for its inhabitants. Based on these two key points, this contribution focuses on the design of a modular real-time monitoring system architecture, combining Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks, signal processing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) data analysis and Building Information Modeling (BIM) visualization, along with selection or development of sensors for cost-effective monitoring of the specific solutions to be implemented in the urban scale within MULTICLIMACT, namely new optimized cool urban pavement and nature-based solutions (NBS) designs to mitigate the heat-island effect and surface runoff, both identified as major risks in Europe's hot Mediterranean cities with low seismic risk, such as Barcelona (BCN), the future pilot city for the deployment of these solutions.