Extreme temperatures risk – City of Turin (Italy)

Alternative: Extreme temperatures risk in the city of Turin (Italy)
SDG: Climate Action

Indicator: Mean near surface temperature deviation (urban) (ESS code: 13_30)

Close UN indicator: 13.1.1
Copernicus components that will be used:    
Area description:
Turin (45°6′ 58′′ N and 7°44′ 33′′ E) is located in the north-west part of Italy, and it is the fourth largest Italian urban area with a population of 852.223 inhabitants. The city is located 800 ft above sea level and despite the climate predominantly being characterised by dry summers and mild wet winters (Mediterranean), the presence of the Alpine Mountain range and the Superga hills favours a limited circulation of the foehn winds, conferring to Turin a complex mosaic of microclimates.s
Rationale: In a scenario of no or limited adaptation to climate change, extreme temperatures are expected to be one of the main adverse events responsible for additional deaths (Ballester et al., 2011). The Pilot therefore intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed improvements to the current assessment framework for the SDG indicator 13_30, which is used to monitor progress towards SDG 13 “Climate Action”. To do so, the use of high-resolution climate datasets on past climate – available on Copernicus as well as on other platforms/sources – will be analysed together with health data (to determine how the application and use of diverse climate data (in terms of time and space resolution) could improve the risk assessment phase and, then, support policymakers at the urban scale. In addition, this Pilot also has interconnection with other SDGs: first SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-being”, SDG 10 (“Reduced Inequalities”), because ASLTO3 could provide health data associated to demo-socio-economic data by location (Costa et al., 2017), and SDG 11 (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”), because, with these analyses, ad hoc adaptation measures could be implemented at the local scale to increase health resilience of local population.
Applications: (currently not applicable)

Leader: ASLTO3

Partners: CMCC

Main stakeholders involved

Arpa Piemonte (The Regional Agency for the Protection of the Environment)

Civil Protection

Turin Municipal Administration

Other regional and local decision-makers in health and social policies and institutions

Active citizenship

University of Turin (Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning)
Objectives: To best define which climate indicators could be used within a risk framework that takes into account the link between temperature and health (i.e. mortality, morbidity). This will be done by taking into account the different scales of spatial resolution, but also all demographic, socio-economic and built environment components that contribute to exacerbating (or mitigating) the final population risk from extreme temperature events in urban settings.

Expected results & outcomes: The Pilot will deliver a Copernicus-based tool distributing maps of the mean near-surface temperature deviation, but more importantly of risk estimates, based on the multiple climate datasets. A DSS will allow users to query the maps and analyse data, including comparing different periods.

The outcome will be a better understanding whether the use of higher resolution datasets favours more accurate or different risk estimates, which can support health policy-making processes related to the temperature-related risk management of the population at the urban scale.
References: Ballester et al. (2011) Doi:10.1038/ncomms1360; Costa et al. (2017); De Ridder et al. (2015) Doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2015.01.001; Ellena et al. (2020) Doi:10.1186/s12940-020-00667-x; Martinez et al. (2021) ISBN 978-92-890-5540-6; Raffa et al. (2021) Doi:10.3390/data6080088

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