New publication explores targeted urban cooling pathways for just climate resilience
A new article in connection with the Climate-Adapt4EOSC project entitles “Scenario-based modeling for exploring urban cooling pathways: a targeted, health-relevant approach toward just resilience” by Christos Giannaros, Vassiliki Kotroni, and K. Lagouvardos has been published in Environmental Research: Health. The article examines how urban cooling measures can be planned in ways that reflect local needs, health risks, and social vulnerability, rather than assuming uniform city-wide implementation. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with explicit urban canopy representation, the study simulates three cool-roof scenarios in the vulnerable western suburbs of the Athens Urban Area, focusing on a nine-day extreme heatwave from 28 July to 5 August 2021. (ResearchGate)
The results show that targeted cool-roof interventions can produce measurable cooling benefits, with mean daytime near-surface air-temperature reductions reaching 0.54 °C under Etesian winds and 0.73 °C during sea-breeze conditions. By combining urban climate modelling with epidemiological evidence and demographic data, the study estimates potential heat-stress benefits for 134,661 to 197,787 people, depending on the cool-roof strategy, with particular relevance for heat-vulnerable populations. (ResearchGate)
Relevance to Climate-Adapt4EOSC
The publication is especially relevant to Climate-Adapt4EOSC because it demonstrates the value of integrated, scenario-based, and health-relevant modelling for climate adaptation. Climate adaptation research increasingly depends on connecting diverse forms of evidence, including climate models, urban data, demographic information, health indicators, vulnerability assessments, and decision-support tools.
Climate-Adapt4EOSC aims to support this kind of interdisciplinary research by improving how data, models, services, software, and research outputs are discovered, connected, reused, and managed within the European Open Science Cloud. Studies such as this highlight why FAIR and interoperable research environments matter: effective climate resilience planning requires transparent, reusable, and actionable knowledge that can move across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
By supporting FAIR, EOSC-aligned infrastructures for climate adaptation research, Climate-Adapt4EOSC seeks to help researchers, planners, and stakeholders turn complex climate knowledge into practical pathways for more resilient and equitable cities.
Article details
Title: Scenario-based modeling for exploring urban cooling pathways: a targeted, health-relevant approach toward just resilience
Authors: Christos Giannaros, Vassiliki Kotroni, and K. Lagouvardos
Journal: Environmental Research: Health
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Publication date: April 2026
DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ae6095
Link: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5309/ae6095/meta
