UrbanAIR at ICUC12: Designing the future of Urban Climate Planning

Group photo of the the participants in the 12th ICUC, including our Femke Vossepoel, Samuel Pickard, Clara Garcia-Sanchez, Su Li Heng, Anna Gralka, Natalie Theeuwes, Maarten van Reeuwijk, Stephan de Roode, Nooshin Nowzamani

UrbanAIR proudly participated in the 12th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC12), which took place 7-11 July, 2025, in Rotterdam. The conference brought together leading voices in climate science, planning, and policy to explore how we shape the cities of tomorrow.

Many of our partner researchers have contributed throughout the event, presenting their work, chairing sessions, and engaging in meaningful exchanges with peers from around the world.

This year’s theme, "Heritage as an Urban Climate Challenge", aligned closely with UrbanAIR’s mission to help cities understand and manage climate risks, protect what we inherit, and plan for what lies ahead.

The session "Digital Twins, AI/ML and Open Data Science for Urban Climate" of the conference explored definitions, description and applications of tools and methodologies in urban climate informatics, focusing on Digital Twins, and how open data, models and multisensor observations, simulations, and AI/ML technologies can support evidence-based decision-making for climate adaptation and mitigation in cities.

Our partners and coordinator, Femke Vossepoel, shared UrbanAIR’s vision of a digital twin of the urban atmosphere that brings together physics-based modelling, co-designed tools, and real-world data to support local decisions on air quality, heat, and urban planning for climate change adaptation, integrated into the Destination Earth (DestinE) Earth infrastructure. 

UrbanAIR: a digital twin of the urban atmosphere for decision support (PDF)

In the session Engagement with Society – Mitigation and adaptation the partners participated in the poster session and shared work from the Barcelona pilot, led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, where they collaborate with local actors to create services that reflect city realities and needs.

The presentation detailed our efforts to oversee the co-production process and directly engage with local stakeholders. This includes structured stakeholder mapping and user selection, efforts and tips for building lasting trusted relations with stakeholders, a commentary on the iterative dynamic of co-design and co-development, and the development and implementation of a co-evaluation framework that assesses the co-production process and its outputs.

Co-producing urban climate and air-quality services in Barcelona (PDF)

The entire session focused on why and how effectively engaging society in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts is critical to building resilient and sustainable cities. With climate change posing increasing risks to urban environments, it is essential to include a wide range of stakeholders—community members, decision-makers, and professionals—in the planning and implementation of climate strategies.

Check teh gallery to see moments from #ICUC12 and the informal conversations that keep this work moving forward. 

To everyone who stopped by, asked a question, or shared feedback, thank you. We are excited for what comes next. Stay tuned to learn about our next steps and activities!

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