The project: Toward small towns resilience – geospatial assessment model of climate vulnerability received funding from the National Science Center under the SONATA program: UMO-2022/47/D/HS4/00736.
The future of humanity is urban, but not necessarily metropolitan
(UN-Habitat, 2022).
Small towns and climate change
Small towns have a natural potential toward climate change mitigation (Hoornweg et al., 2011). When equipped with data-driven tools and recommendations on how to shape the urban space, they can strengthen resilience to climate change and develop their adaptive capacity. The urban form – ways of development, street layout, services offered, etc. may either exacerbate or mitigate climate change (Barton, 2009, Sharifi, 2019).
Small towns face the challenge of lacking local tools for obtaining climate information, which limits their ability to adapt to climate change. At the same time, most of the local governments from small towns in the Central Europe perceive climate change as a major challenge to be addressed in urban policies and find a need for the implementation of climate-oriented solutions as an important direction in the development of their municipalities (Hamin et al., 2014, Sima et al., 2016).
Existing urban models have become insufficient to ensure sustainable development and climate change resilient cities
(World Cities Report, 2022).
Most of the towns report difficulties and inability to implement data driven urban design solutions which result from reliable databases and predictive models
(New Urban Agenda Report 2022).
Majority of towns find implementing climate change adaptation plans as a challenge
(The Summary for Urban Policymakers of the IPCC Sixth Assessment report, 2022).
The role of planners and urban designers is to develop better databases and monitoring tools to evaluate the consequences of climate change in the cities, allowing to monitor adaptation and mitigation progress, identify gaps and propose solutions for a better urban futures
(Data for the City of Tomorrowm 2023).
Local and data-driven climate-oriented actions contribute to creating resilient and livable towns and thereby driving socio-economic development
(Future cities and new economy, carbon neutrality driven by green innovations, 2023).
Let's have a look at small towns and climate through data...
Our aims and tools
We argue that a spatial data-based and machine learning driven assessment model can help to identify climate related challenges, both responsive and positive practices to ensure healthy conditions and good quality of life in small towns.
Spatial delimitation
Miasta biorące udział w badaniu
We work in 4 different scales
(Un-Habitat MyNeighbourhood (2023)
Looking for good practices
Creating a ranking of climate positive towns
Identifying challenges
Proposing solutions
We provide supportive solutions for small towns
Adaptation and mitigation actions integrating technological, environmental and social solutions can provide benefits and can contribute to improving climate urban resilience
(Lin et al., 2021).
Climate-oriented transformative approach to urban planning
(Un-Habitat MyNeighbourhood (2023)
About our team
Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD, March, Eng.
Principal investigator & assistant professor
at the Department of Spatial Studies of the University of Gdańsk
Architect and urban planner specializing in data driven urban design. She obtained with a distinction her PhD in engineering and technical sciences in the discipline of architecture and urban planning in 2020 at the Faculty of Architecture of the Gdańsk University of Technology. She also studied at the Warsaw University of Technology graduating as a GIS analyst, and at the Technical University of Vienna. She also completed a bootcamp at InfoShare Academy and obtained a data scientist certificate. She has international both design and academic experience from China, South Africa, USA, Colombia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Romania and Germany. She worked at the Pomeranian Regional Planning Office where she co-created, among others, spatial development plan for the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolitan area. While working at the Gdańsk University of Technology, she co-creates an innovative solution – an application based eco currency aiming to enhance pro-ecological behavior of urban dwellers. She is an assistant professor at the University of Gdańsk at the Department of Spatial Studies, an academic teaching urban design and data analysis. In her PhD, based on her experience of regional and urban planning and urban data science-oriented projects, she developed a tool to assess the impact of metropolization processes on the development of small towns. For her work, she received 7 awards and a ministerial 3-year scholarship for outstanding young scientists. Since March, she has been a visiting researcher at the Delft University of Technology.
scholarship recipient
specialist in the field of GIS analyzes of the built environment, focused on both environmental and urban aspects
scholarship recipient
specialist in the field of GIS analyzes of the built environment, focused on both social and urban aspects
Call for new project members
expert
expert in the field of GIS analyzes of the built environment, focused on both social and urban aspects
