Funded under the European Horizon 2020 program, the I-CHANGE project addresses the challenge of involving and promoting active participation of citizens on issues of climate change, sustainable development and environmental protection.
Climate change is one of the most serious threats we are facing, negatively affecting several dimensions of our existence, from health to disaster risks. One of the key points of the European initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change (such as the European Green Deal) is the awareness that the involvement of citizens is a key element to achieve a real change towards environmental sustainability. The project 3 and a half year (November 2021/April 2025) I-CHANGE project is placed in this perspective and aims, through a multidisciplinary and participatory approach, to strengthen the participation and awareness of citizens on these issues. To do this, it will carry out various activities, starting from the collection of environmental data through citizen science activities (e.g. with special apps), to educational and informative paths that allow to understand the impact of daily behaviors on the environment, up to conduct living labs in some cities of the project partner countries. Data, tools and apps developed during the project will converge in the I-CHANGE Envirnmental Impact Hub (EIH), which will return information to citizens; moreover, the EIH aims to inter-operate with the main European initiatives for data sharing and computational infrastructures, such as Copernicus , World Meteorological Organization and the European Strategy on Data.
Within I-CHANGE, CIMA Research Foundation is the project coordinator and responsible for the citizen science initiatives that will be carried out in Genoa, in collaboration with ARPAL, Liguria Region and Genoa Municipality. Among the planned activities there are the implementation of specific web portals and smartphone applications that allow the collection of meteorological data and the dissemination of surveys; the ability to provide citizens with personalized and localized information on possible environmental risks and rules on how to deal with them thanks to warning systems and the creation of climate change adaptation plans to improve the perception of risk and the ability of institutions to transfer information in a clear, effective and credible way.
Educational kit “Zero Emission City”
One of the activities that the CIMA Research Foundation has developed is an educational kit for “Zero Emission City” schools in which teachers and students will be able to learn about the carbon footprint and the best behaviors to adopt to reduce carbon dioxide production, learning through a game.
The objective is to try to ‘save’ as many kilos of carbon dioxide as possible by carrying out actions in a city that would like to become zero emissions. Any action carried out leads to the production of carbon dioxide, but with various measures it is possible to guarantee that the repetition of these actions can lead to less pollution production.
The more teams enter a specific box, the closer the action gets to the zero emissions goal. To liven up the game, there are some boxes on the board, Heat Islands and Intense Breezes, which represent some dynamics not foreseen by the classic turn of the board.
Whoever manages to offset more carbon dioxide than the other teams wins.
If you want to try playing, click here to download Zero Emission City and start the game!
