Title: Effect of land use changes on air quality: Impacts of urbanization, urban vegetation, and agriculture / Urbanization transforms natural landscapes into impervious surfaces, altering local climate and air quality. Greening strategies are increasingly adopted to mitigate these effects, yet their efficacy depends on complex interactions among land use, urban form, geography, and climate.
Title: Bridging local and global vulnerabilities for an integrated assessment of nature-based solutions/ Nature-based solutions (NBSs) can address socio-ecological challenges in urban environments, such as climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation, but their local and global impacts are often not fully assessed. Stakeholder workshops serve to weigh the relative importance of impacts on vulnerabilities.
On May 15, 2025, Professor Gara Villalba, Full Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and PI of the URBAG project, participated in the Cities on the Frontline speaker series organized by the Resilient Cities Network. This globally attended event, now in its 2025 edition, brought together experts and urban practitioners to explore the theme: “Renaturing Cities: Restoring Ecosystems and Building Urban Resilience.”
La publicació de l'investigador Ricard Segura-Barrero està tenint un gran impacte als mitjans. Les onades de calor i les sequeres cada vegada més freqüents estan reduint de manera preocupant la capacitat dels ecosistemes per actuar com a embornals de carboni.
URBAG took part in the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Vienna, where researchers presented their latest work on urban air quality, greenhouse gas fluxes, and nature-based solutions for climate adaptation. Three contributions by Qing Luo, Ricard Segura-Barrero and Svetlana Khromova showcased URBAG’s interdisciplinary approach to tackling climate challenges in urban environments.
Title: Assessing the Short-Term Air Quality Health Impact from Land-Use Changes During Heatwaves: A Health Impact Assessment in Barcelona Metropolitan Area / Heatwaves amplify air pollution, increasing public health risks, particularly in urban areas where land use influences the distribution of pollutants. This study examines the short-term health effects of air pollution during a two-week heatwave in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area under different land use scenarios
As part of the poster session, Qing Luo presented her research titled “High-Resolution Accounting for the Urban Biogenic CO₂ Emissions: Insights from the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.” The study addresses a critical challenge in tackling the climate crisis: accurately quantifying biogenic CO₂ fluxes in urban areas.
Title: A social-ecological-technological vulnerability approach for assessing urban hydrological risks/ In the context of urban population growth and climate change, and ever greater number of people are anticipated to face severe risks associated with extreme climate events; major ones are due to stormwater-related hazards. This study offers novel understanding of the complex nature of water-related risks in urban geographies
Descobrint la ciència a l'Hort-Laboratori Sostenible. El passat 17 de febrer de 2025, el nostre equip va participar en una jornada d'outreach a l'Escola La Pau de Sant Sadurní, en el marc del programa Aliança Magnet. Aquesta iniciativa, impulsada per Sostenipra, busca apropar la ciència als infants mitjançant experiències interactives i educatives.
És un gran plaer convidar-vos a la presentació de Tesi Doctoral d’en Sergi Ventura el proper 28 de Març a les 11:00 a l’ICTA-UAB sala Z/022- Z/023. També és possible connectar-se online mitjançant l'enllaç que proporcionem. Supervisors: Dr. Gara Villalba (UAB), Dr. Josep Ramon Miró (SMC)