Climate resilience in Trento: understanding vulnerabilities and empowering adaptive resources

The impacts of climate change are causing environmental, social and economic damages and are making the planet less liveable. In addition to temperature increases and precipitation changes, climate changes increase the frequency of extreme events such as floods, heat waves and water scarcity. It is evident that actions and decisions both at the global and local level need to be taken. Impacts in the urban environment are intensified by microclimatic phenomena (e.g. Urban Heat Islands) resulting from human lifestyles, morphology and materials used in cities. They are further exacerbated by population growth in urban areas. The paper reports the first results of the study carried out in Trento, a town of 117’000 inhabitants located in the Adige Valley. It investigates the impacts of climate change in its urban environment and focuses on the possibilities of making the town more resilient, through a solid knowledge of the vulnerabilities and the capacity of developing further the opportunities already present in the territory. In recent years, Trento joined European programs such as the “Covenant of Mayors” and launched projects to find solutions to the afore-mentioned challenges and traced scenarios for the future decades: a general decrease in total rainfall accompanied by an increase of precipitation maxima and a significant increase of temperatures are envisaged, leading to vulnerabilities to people and ecosystems, especially in the densest residential areas. The aim of the paper is to show a series of design practices and tests, involving the Municipality and local Research Institutes, seeking to integrate the urban components with the elements of Green and Blue Infrastructure, in order to improve local microclimate and the valorization of spaces. The guidelines provided promote the creation of multifunctional spaces and aim to define replicable solutions that contribute both to mitigation and adaptation to climate changes.