WP1 – Management and monitoring of the project

The WP1 includes the actions for the project start-up (T1.1), the general administration and management (T1.2), and the assessment and monitoring of progresses (T1.3). The T1.1 both reports the outcomes of the kick-off meeting and the communication plan, and the purchasing of equipment and useful material. The T1.2 is related to financial and administrative activities needed for the implementation and evolution of the project, based on the facilitation of the communication between the units for fulfilling the time and financial schedule, as the assignment of consulting activities. The T1.3 is a continuous task needed for ensuring the scientific evolution of the project and the capacity to comply with the stated milestones and deliverables. The WP1 is managed by UNINA. T1.1 – Project start-up (UNINA); T1.2 – General administration and management (UNINA); T1.3 – Evaluation and monitoring (UNINA)

WP2 – Understanding of urban green area baseline scenarios and definition of a decision support intervention strategy

The WP2 aims to assess the current baseline scenarios of the built environment against the actual application of greening interventions and the general conditions of green areas and buildings (T2.1), to implement a framework of indicators for the reading, the investigation, and the evaluation of the buildings and related open spaces (T2.2), to develop a support tool addressing the application of green intervention strategies (T2.3).
Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca T2.1 – Understanding and mapping the role of green areas in existing urban contexts and buildings (Lead: UNIPA; Part: UNINA, UNICT) T2.1 plans to investigate the most valid procedures and methodologies available in the literature for the analysis of the baseline
scenarios of the built environment (D2.1.1, deliverables are listed in the subsection “Milestones and Deliverables” beyond). The benefits of green areas and green building envelopes for urban resilience, sustainability, and health are specifically considered. The main scope is the definition of a pool of indicators suitable for the evaluation of existing buildings and related external spaces. Main analysed domains are: construction, technology, and building features, biological, botanic, and hydraulic behaviour, health,
psychological parameters, and statistic criteria. Existing national and international policies and latest rules concerning environmental green area condition in urban contexts will be also considered. For the effective development of the GREENWORK project, a pivotal starting point is the mapping of the existing public buildings and green areas in the selected area of investigation (D2.1.2). Due to their spatial distribution and typological and construction features and sizes, this type of buildings is prone to widespread application of greening interventions. The procedure is based on the collection of public building information in GIS environment, integrating
public database (e.g. Italian public real estate database on the Ministry of Economy and Finance website). This information will be the start point to evaluate the best constructive, social, and economic typologies.
T2.2 – Holistic definition of a framework of key performance indicators on green areas and green buildings (Lead: UNINA; Part: UNIPA, UNICT)
Based on the detailed investigation of the literature (T2.1), in T2.2 a structured framework will be implemented to assess the strengths/weaknesses of the existing built environment and greening solutions. The framework is aimed at both estimating the key
performance indicators (KPIs) and implementing a multi-disciplinary methodology for their aggregation and weighting. Public buildings (and related open spaces) have been considered and mapped (D2.1). A multi-criteria approach will allow assessing the suitability of considered buildings to undergo greening interventions and their proneness in getting benefits from technical, environmental (ecosystem services), socio-economic, and heritage viewpoint. For each case-study, the most suitable KPIs will be selected among the pool of indicators from the literature reviewed in T2.1 and a hierarchic multi-level aggregating approach will allow estimating the score of their greening readiness. Basic indicators will be coupled with refined ones, to provide a comprehensive overview. Selected indicators are collected into a rapid visual screening sheet for the classification of considered buildings. UNINA is the task leader, given the consolidated expertise in both the field of existing building parametric reading and assessment and the definition of proper indicators concerning the evaluation of adaptability and transformability of buildings. Indicators selected will be referred to: the parametric reading of existing buildings, the conformation of open spaces, the typological adaptability of buildings in undergoing transformation interventions, the constructive features of buildings, the hydraulic, biologic, and botanic conditions, the relationships with the surroundings, the health and psychological perception of green spaces, the availability and possibility of growing of different crops. The D2.2 is directly related to the definition of the survey sheet for the analysis of buildings and the related outdoor areas that is composed by the several indicators identified during the task.
T2.3 – Definition of a multicriteria-method for the definition of priorities of interventions (UNICT) The methodology proposed and applied to the green interventions and to the investments in green spaces is based on an integrated approach between participatory planning techniques (based on the establishment of Focus Groups with the various stakeholders)
and the adoption of a Social Multi-criteria Evaluation framework, which defines the concept of evaluation as a mixture of representation, assessment, and quality check connected with a given policy problem, based on a specified objective [23]. The methodological structure can acquire and evaluate the “complex” information collected (quantitative and qualitative data) on the suitability of buildings to undergo transformations, on possible alternative scenarios in relation to the urban green spaces and on the
definition of priorities of interventions. Opinions are collected at specific meetings at the local level with stakeholders and sector’s operators involved in the issue from environmental, social, technological, climate, landscape, health safety, and economic points of view.

WP3 – Mitigation and Adaptation for more resilient and sustainable cities

The WP3 aims to define a framework of adaptation and mitigation strategies able to enhance urban resilience and urban health by the application of greening interventions. After the reading and the analysis of the existing conditions (WP2), in T3.1 a widespread analysis of best practices is performed. After a rating of most suitable buildings (T3.2), the most suitable transformation interventions on several case studies (T3.3) are defined and applied based on green solutions, consistently with all the scientific
sector involved in the project (architecture, construction, hydraulic engineering, biology, botanic, psychology, health, real estate appraisal).
T3.1 – Best practices for greening interventions (Lead: UNICT; Part: UNINA, UNIPA) This task will include an overall insight of the main greening best practices aimed at creating an inventory, based on existing open-source database management system. This will collect semantic, documentary, photographic and cartographic information on local examples already included in project databases. Furthermore, regarding greening systems best practices will be analysed, evaluating their applicability to existing buildings. Specifically, on a building scale, the morphological, technical-constructive, and volumetric characteristics of existing buildings will be assessed to identify those that are most technologically compatible with the
built heritage, among the different types of greening systems. With specific reference to the hydraulic response, the attention will be specifically paid to the main LID-BMPs, by remarking strengths and weaknesses of each solution and their field of applicability under different climate scenarios (e.g. the implementation of green roofs, porous pavements, vegetative swales, and bio-retention cells). T3.2 – Definition of priorities of intervention (UNINA)
Based on D2.2 and D2.3, a multi-criteria method can be applied on the selected rates of the chosen urban context. The application of the procedure allows the rating of the public buildings involved, by determining a list of priorities of intervention for the selection of the case studies investigated in T3.3. This task involves UNINA for a whole range of prior experience about ranking, assessing, and prioritizing interventions on existing buildings. T3.3 – Building transformation adaptation and mitigation interventions based on greening interventions (Lead: UNIPA; Part: UNINA,UNICT) T3 directly addresses the definition of optimal adaptation and mitigation strategies through the application of greening interventions. UNIPA leads the activities, given the several expertise of its team. A first definition of suitable plant species for the Mediterranean climate (D3.3.1) and beneficial for the detection of the technical solutions is performed (D3.3.2). Thereafter, the greening
interventions can be applied on the selected case studies (D3.3.3). Case studies will be identified within the investigation areas of Napoli (a sub district of the city centre with a relevant number of historical public buildings), Catania (a peripheric area with significant public social housing properties), and Palermo (a portion of the city centre with academic buildings including interesting open spaces). The design solutions will focus on the application of green roofs, green façades, and on the replacement – where possible – of impervious pavements with pervious ones. The project aims to enhance the environmental quality of indoor and outdoor spaces, to improve the urban resilience to climate change disruptive events, and to increase the quality and the quantity of green open space available in different urban contexts. The green building envelope and pavements integrations will be coupled with the assessment of psychological impacts (D3.3.4) on the end users to assess their social as well as technological integration. The experimental stage will be developed with the support of the DARCH Building Laboratory and the UNIPA ATEN Center. The statistical analysis techniques will depend on the variables used. After carrying out a descriptive analysis of the data, multivariate statistical analyses will be also used to identify possible relationships of dependence among the considered variables and
homogeneity of behaviour among the units on which these variables have been detected. The objective of the survey, indeed, is also to demonstrate how an adequate environment can improve performance and productivity. The questionnaires will be submitted online using face-to-face and/or telematic tools, during which the obtained results will be analysed and discussed. In this context, the presence of psychologists will be crucial for the purposes of investigating the actual needs and requirements of the various users and verifying their satisfaction once the project has been completed.

WP4 – Validation

The approach for the assessment of the adaptability of buildings and open spaces (T2.3) and the interventions proposed in T3.3 need to be validated by the expertise of the research units involved. The WP4 is organized in two tasks: T4.1 refers to the validation of the interventions proposed on the case studies (D3.3.3) considering exclusively economic feasibility aspects whereas T4.2 looks at the validation of both the analysis sheet (D2.2) and the sustainable and urban resilience convenience of proposed interventions
(D3.3.3). T4.1 – Verification of the economical suitability of interventions (UNICT) The economic and financial feasibility study of the foreseen interventions in the identified case studies is based on the prevailing
spending review approach. Therefore, the focus will be on the one hand on the economic-financial component and on the other hand on the satisfaction of specific needs of the stakeholders concerned. It envisages the phases of the assessment of investment and operating costs, of revenues, to express a financial judgement on the feasibility of the interventions. The assessment will be completed with the identification of the Net Present Value and the Internal Rate of Return, to evaluate the economic viability of the planned investments. T4.2 – Validation of the analysis sheet and rating of building adaptability, and validation of adaptation and mitigation interventions
(Lead: UNINA; Part: UNIPA, UNICT) The T4.2 task concerns the validation procedure of two significant deliverables of the project (D2.2 and D3.3.3). The analysis sheet (D2.2) is validated through the comparison of the rating get by the case study analysed (D3.2) and the design intervention proposed
(D3.3.3). In case of a good rating and a complex project, some corrections should be made on the sheet. The second validation procedure concerns the evaluation of the improvements on health, urban resilience, and environmental quality of the considered case studies and the neighbouring areas based on the design of greening interventions proposed in D3.3.3. Improvements will be
evaluated by comparing the values of significant KPIs in both the baseline scenario and in the design one. The comparative results will validate the reliability of the proposed interventions. Costs for external consulting activities are expected in the validation task for the three units (see Item C in section A.14 of the proposal) especially concerning environmental and physical modelling aspects.

WP5 – Dissemination

The overall ambition within WP5 is the strategic communication to demonstrate how GREENWORK can provide adequate proof-of-concept of greening strategies in addressing building and open space regeneration and in determining more resilient, sustainable, and healthier urban environments. This WP is aimed at communicating and exploiting the results of the project to a wide audience to maximise project impacts. Project’s activities and outputs will be disseminated through a variety of communication channels (T5.1). The dissemination activity will reach our even the scientific academic community throughout the participation to conferences, the organization of a final conference, and the publication of several scientific papers (T5.2). Furthermore, the exploitation of GREENWORK project outputs (T5.3) can include the definition of an informative open-access platform where all the
collected data are stored and the definition of an information tool for the rapid visual screening (D2.2) of buildings. T5.1 – Communication (UNINA); T5.2 – Plan and execute of dissemination event (UNINA); T5.3 – Exploitation of results (UNINA)