Mezzacapo, U., Voltolina, D., Gencarelli, C. N., Esposito, G., Mondini, A., Salvati, P., … & Marchesini, I. (2025). Drivers and Barriers of Sustainable Behaviours Among Young Generations in a Climate-Vulnerable Italian City. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 105420.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105420

Sustainable behaviours are essential for addressing climate change, particularly as extreme weather events intensify globally. Identifying the factors that drive or hinder these behaviours is crucial for developing effective interventions. However, existing behavioural models often overlook cultural, social, and contextual influences shaping sustainable actions, especially in climate-vulnerable regions.

The COM-B model is a behavioural framework that explains behaviour change through the interplay of Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation, which together determine whether a Behaviour can occur. In this study, we apply it—among its first uses in climate change research—to analyze the determinants influencing sustainable behaviours. Conducted in Chiavari, a Ligurian city prone to floods, the research involved 470 secondary school students (aged 15–17) and 117 young adults (aged 18–35). Results show that young adults with direct experience of extreme events exhibit greater climate awareness (90% vs. 80% of students) and a higher tendency to engage in sustainable behaviours, while students demonstrate a stronger belief in the effectiveness of collective action.

The analysis highlights moderate positive correlations between motivation and sustainable behaviour, as well as between capability and both motivation and behaviour, emphasizing capability’s key role in fostering motivation. However, over 40% of respondents feel no social pressure to reduce their footprint, and only 15.7% of students and 18.8% of young adults prioritize ethical and sustainable consumption.
These findings reinforce the COM-B model’s potential to identify the most effective determinants for fostering sustainable behaviours. Targeting capability and motivation could enhance interventions, leveraging local awareness and direct experiences to promote climate-conscious actions.

Devecchi, M., Dagnino, E., Milelli, M., Soini, K., & Parodi, A. (2024). Climate change education in a secondary school, the I‐CHANGE Project approach. European Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12875

Raising the awareness and interest of young generations for climate change phenomena and its impacts is a topic of great importance from a social and cultural standpoint. Along these lines, education plays a crucial role to meet the goals of the EU’s Green Deal both through direct interplay with students and information spillover towards families and in general stakeholders at large. Inspired by these ideas, the H2020 I-CHANGE project (Individual Change of HAbits Needed for Green European transition, 2021–2025, https://ichange-project.eu/) aims at engaging and promoting the active participation of citizens for addressing climate change, sustainable development, and environmental protection. By taking into consideration the ongoing fast socio-cultural change, the vertical growth of digital media, and, therefore, the new ways children and young people learn, this paper presents a possible path towards the practical implementation of key EU’s Green Deal concepts in a secondary school, building on top of Episode of Situated Learning (ESL) methodology.

Liu, F., Bellemans, T., Janssens, D., Wets, G., & Adnan, M. (2024). A Methodological Approach for Enriching Activity–Travel Schedules with In-Home Activities. Sustainability, 16(22), 10086. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162210086

In-home activities are inevitably important parts of individuals’ daily schedules, as people spend more time working and doing various other activities (e.g., online shopping or banking) at home. However, conventional activity-based travel demand models (ABMs) only consider travel and travel-related out-of-home activities, ignoring the interaction between in-home and out-of-home activities. To fill in this gap and increase the understanding of what people do at home and how in-home and out-of-home activities affect each other, a new method is proposed in this study. The approach predicts the types and durations of in-home activities of daily schedules generated by ABMs. In model building, statistical methods such as multinomial logit, log-linear regression, and activity sequential information are utilized, while in calibration, the Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) method is employed. The proposed method was tested using training data and by applying the approach to the schedules of 6.3 million people in the Flemish region of Belgium generated by a representative ABM. Based on the statistical methods, the mean absolute errors were 0.36 and 0.21 for predicting the number and sum of the durations of in-home activities (over all types) per schedule, respectively. The prediction obtained a 10% and 8% improvement using sequential information. After calibration, an additional 60% and 68% were gained regarding activity participation rates and time spent per day. The experimental results demonstrate the potential and practical ability of the proposed method for the incorporation of in-home activities in activity–travel schedules, contributing towards the extension of ABMs to a wide range of applications that are associated with individuals’ in-home activities (e.g., the appropriate evaluation of energy consumption and carbon emission estimation as well as sustainable policy designs for telecommuting).

Mölter, A., Giuffrida, N., & Pilla, F. (2024). Going to the Zoo: A comparison of travel time ratios in 21 European cities. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 26, 101161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2024.101161

Peerlings, E., Vranic, S., Ommer, J., Kalas, M., & Steeneveld, G. (2024). Indoor heat in Amsterdam: Comparing observed indoor air temperatures from a professional network and from a citizen science approach. City and Environment Interactions, 100173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cacint.2024.100173

Ongoing climate change is increasing summertime temperatures, and frequency and intensity of heatwaves in Europe, which can threaten human health. Relatively little is known about how quickly outdoor heat penetrates into residences during heatwaves. Long-term and systematic networks recording indoor temperatures are challenging to install and maintain, and therefore scarce. We first report on crowdsourced indoor air temperature data in residences in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) during a heatwave event in September 2023. These data complement professional long-term indoor air temperature observations in 92 houses in Amsterdam. Second, we document the lessons learnt in the design and execution of this citizen science activity. 571 indoor temperature records were collected through the citizen science crowdsourcing approach, with a median value of 28.0 °C on the warmest day in the study period, while outdoor mean minimum and maximum temperatures reached 20.6 °C and 31.1 °C respectively. The results indicate that the crowdsourcing approach reports temperatures that are significantly higher than the professional approach, which supports the need for professional indoor networks. Finally, local media attention was critical in reaching a wide audience.

Insua-Costa, D., Lemus-Cánovas, M., González-Alemán, J.J. et al. Extraordinary 2021 snowstorm in Spain reveals critical threshold response to anthropogenic climate change. Commun Earth Environ 5, 339 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01503-7

Attribution of extreme weather events to anthropogenic climate change (ACC) has become an increasingly important line of research in recent years. However, the potential influence of ACC on heavy snowstorms remains largely unexplored. Here we focus on studying the exceptional January 2021 snowfall event in Spain, known as Filomena. First, using observational data and flow analogs, we show that the characteristic synoptic pattern leading to the episode has not significantly changed in frequency over the past decades. Based on this, we assume a fixed dynamical pattern and focus on studying the influence of ACC on the thermodynamics of the event using an atmospheric model and a storyline attribution approach. Our simulations indicate that in northern highlands, ACC intensified snowfall by up to +40% compared with pre-industrial conditions, while in nearby southern lowlands ACC weakened snowfall by up to –80%. This characteristic shift from weakening to intensification is well defined by a critical threshold in temperature. Furthermore, we show that if Filomena were to occur at the end of the 21^st century, this contrasting response to ACC would be enhanced. Altogether, our findings highlight the large but uneven impact of global warming on extreme snowstorm events.

Burlando, M., Miglietta, M.M., Avolio, E. et al. The –WIND RISK project: nowcast and simulation of thunderstorm outflows. Bull. of Atmos. Sci.& Technol. 5, 15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42865-024-00079-6

–WIND RISK is a research project dealing with measurement and modelling of wind fields within thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds and outflows at the ground (i.e., downbursts and gust fronts). The general objective of the project is to advance the knowledge about the processes occurring inside thunderstorm clouds responsible for strong outflows, and the identification of the environmental (synoptic and meso-scale) conditions favourable to their development. The area under investigation is Northwestern Italy and the Ligurian Sea, which are among the most exposed regions to strong thunderstorms in Europe. Two measurement campaigns using Doppler weather radars and remote-sensing ground-based anemometry, and ad-hoc simulations using the WRF model are carried out to build a database of thunderstorm wind fields with special focus on downdraft and downburst characterization. All measurements and simulations are shared within the scientific community after the end of the project through datasets published on open access platforms.

Rania N, Bracco F, Munerol F, et al. (2024). Can a training program on climate change promote proenvironmental behaviors? A pilot study with adolescents. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development. 8(14): 9348. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd9348

Environmental Education (EE) programs are of crucial importance. EE are aimed at global citizenship to generate new knowledge and new, more participatory and conscious ways of acting in the environment. This study, therefore, wants to verify the effectiveness of a training intervention that is based on education on climate change issues and on the active participation of subjects in the dimension of the small psychological group. At the intervention 309 students took part, equally distributed by gender (52.1% males), 64.4% enrolled in primary school, 35.6% enrolled in lower secondary school. A quantitative protocol was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The study shows an increase in pro-environmental behaviors and their stability even after 15–30 days. The intervention seems to be effective in triggering pro-environmental behaviors and maintaining them in the following weeks. The results of this study highlight the need to develop environmental education pro-grams in schools to increase levels of knowledge and awareness on the issue of climate change.

Loglisci, N.; Milelli, M.; Iurato, J.; Galia, T.; Galizia, A.; Parodi, A. Validation of Citizen Science Meteorological Data: Can They Be Considered a Valid Help in Weather Understanding and Community Engagement? Sensors 2024, 24, 4598. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24144598

Citizen science has emerged as a potent approach for environmental monitoring, leveraging the collective efforts of volunteers to gather data at unprecedented scales. Within the framework of the I-CHANGE project, MeteoTracker, a citizen science initiative, was employed to collect meteorological measurements. Through MeteoTracker, volunteers contributed to a comprehensive dataset, enabling insights into local weather patterns and trends. This paper presents the analysis and the results of the validation of such observations against the official Italian civil protection in situ weather network, demonstrating the effectiveness of citizen science in generating valuable environmental data. The work discusses the methodology employed, including data collection and statistical analysis techniques, i.e., time-series analysis, spatial and temporal interpolation, and correlation analysis. The overall analysis highlights the high quality and reliability of citizen-generated data as well as the strengths of the MeteoTracker platform. Furthermore, our findings underscore the potential of citizen science to augment traditional monitoring efforts, inform decision-making processes in environmental research and management, and improve the social awareness about environmental and climate issues.

Barbano, F., Brattich, E., Cintolesi, C., Ghafoor Nizamani, A., Di Sabatino, S., Milelli, M., Peerlings, E. E. M., Polder, S., Steeneveld, G.-J., and Parodi, A.: Performance evaluation of MeteoTracker mobile sensor for outdoor applications, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3255–3278, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3255-2024

The morphological complexity of urban environments results in a high spatial and temporal variability of the urban microclimate. The consequent demand for high-resolution atmospheric data remains a challenge for atmospheric research and operational application. The recent widespread availability and increasing adoption of low-cost mobile sensing offer the opportunity to integrate observations from conventional monitoring networks with microclimatic and air pollution data at a finer spatial and temporal scale. So far, the relatively low quality of the measurements and outdoor performance compared to conventional instrumentation has discouraged the full deployment of mobile sensors for routine monitoring. The present study addresses the performance of a commercial mobile sensor, the MeteoTracker (IoTopon Srl), recently launched on the market to quantify the microclimatic characteristics of the outdoor environment. The sensor follows the philosophy of the Internet of Things technology, being low cost, having an automatic data flow via personal smartphones and online data sharing, supporting user-friendly software, and having the potential to be deployed in large quantities. In this paper, the outdoor performance is evaluated through tests aimed at quantifying (i) the intra-sensor variability under similar atmospheric conditions and (ii) the outdoor accuracy compared to a reference weather station under sub-optimal (in a fixed location) and optimal (mobile) sensor usage. Data-driven corrections are developed and successfully applied to improve the MeteoTracker data quality. In particular, a recursive method for the simultaneous improvement of relative humidity, dew point, and humidex index proves to be crucial for increasing the data quality. The results mark an intra-sensor variability of approximately ± 0.5 °C for air temperature and ± 1.2 % for the corrected relative humidity, both of which are within the declared sensor accuracy. The sensor captures the same atmospheric variability as the reference sensor during both fixed and mobile tests, showing positive biases (overestimation) for both variables. Through the mobile test, the outdoor accuracy is observed to be between ± 0.3 to ± 0.5 °C for air temperature and between ± 3 % and ± 5 % for the relative humidity, ranking the MeteoTracker in the real accuracy range of similar commercial sensors from the literature and making it a valid solution for atmospheric monitoring.

Petros Ampatzidis, Carlo Cintolesi, Silvana Di Sabatino, Tristan Kershaw, Blue space effects on urban flow and pollution dispersion in a stable atmosphere, Urban Climate, 55 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2024.101898

Investigating solutions capable of mitigating both the Urban Heat and Pollution Islands is key to realising cities that are resilient to climatic change. Stable atmospheric stratification, typical of heatwave events, exacerbates the heat island effect and increases the risk to human health and wellbeing. Here we examine for the first time the mitigation effects induced by waterbodies within an idealised urban neighbourhood under such conditions using RANS simulations. Results show that, in the presence of waterbodies, increased stability enhances the main vortex in the urban canyon, but suppresses the height up to which convective effects are felt. The cooler the waterbody, the greater its cooling effectiveness at street level, whereas the warmer the waterbody, the smaller the area of influence. Under increased stability, the presence of waterbodies leads to the formation of areas with both cooling and warming effects. Warm waterbodies that do not generate a thermal plume strong enough to penetrate the canopy layer can lead up to a 100% increase in pollutant concentrations at street level in some areas, worsening the impact on human health. Urban planners and practitioners should, therefore, consider both the positive effects and unexpected consequences linked to the presence of blue spaces.

Avanzi, F., Munerol, F., Milelli, M. et al. Winter snow deficit was a harbinger of summer 2022 socio-hydrologic drought in the Po Basin, Italy. Commun Earth Environ 5, 64 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01222-z

Snow in mountainous regions is a key water resource from local to continental scales. However, the link between increasingly frequent snow droughts and socio-hydrologic impacts from headwaters to lowlands is not fully understood. To untangle this relationship, here we combine snow and climate reanalyses with a range of data of terrestrial water storage, streamflow, and emergency water-use restrictions for the archetypal 2022 snow drought in the Po basin (Italy). We find that a persistent high-pressure ridge during winter 2021–2022 translated into a −88% anomaly in peak snow water equivalent, intraseasonal snowmelt, and earlier melt-out dates. Compounded by reduced summer precipitation and importantly increased temperatures, this snow deficit led to the lowest terrestrial water storage on record in summer 2022. Emergency water-use restrictions were concurrent with the peak in snowmelt deficit in early summer, rather than the peak in precipitation deficit in mid-winter. This study highlights the contribution of snowmelt deficit in driving the 2022 socio-hydrologic drought in the Po Basin.

We are grateful to all regional-to-local offices who supported the collection of emergency water-use restrictions for this manuscript. The study received partial support from the EU Horizon 2020 under Grant Agreement no. 101037193.

Rubin, Y., & Alpert, P. (2023, June). Improved Calibration Method For CML Humidity Retrievals Over Complex Terrain. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Workshops (ICASSPW) (pp. 1-4). IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10193335

The use of commercial microwave links (CMLs) as a tool for measuring atmospheric humidity has emerged as a promising new technique for environmental monitoring. CML-based humidity retrieval utilizes the attenuation of microwave signals caused by water vapor to estimate humidity, offering several advantages over traditional sensing techniques such as low cost, high spatial and temporal resolution, and coverage over a wide range of areas. This article discusses the calibration method for determining the base line for CML humidity observations, based on assumptions from the atmospheric sciences field, enabling the use of CMLs over a wide and complex terrain area. With continued development, CMLs are likely to become an increasingly valuable tool for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and other environmental studies.

Lambertini, L., & Tampieri, A. (2023). On the private and social incentives to adopt environmentally and socially responsible practices in a monopoly industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 426, 139036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139036

This paper studies the incentives to adopt Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) in a multiproduct monopoly. In our framework, products are horizontally differentiated, production is polluting and a time-consistent government levies a tax on emissions. The ECSR monopolist may invest in R&D activities to reduce polluting emissions, while emission-reducing innovation may spillover from one product to the other. We show that the monopolist has no incentive to engage in ECSR, unless a regulatory measure is introduced. By contrast, a time consistent tax induces the adoption of a ECSR statute. Under admissible parameter conditions, profits are concave and single-peaked in the ECSR intensity. Finally, ECSR monotonically increases social welfare, by raising consumer surplus and curbing environmental damage.

Munerol, F., Avanzi, F., Panizza, E., Altamura, M., Gabellani, S., Polo, L., Mantini, M., Alessandri, B., and Ferraris, L.: Water and Us: tales and hands-on laboratories to educate about sustainable and nonconflictual water resources management, Geosci. Commun., 7, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-7-1-2024

Climate change and water security are among the grand challenges of the 21st century, but literacy on these matters among high-school students is often unsystematic and/or detached from the real world. This study aims to introduce the educational objectives, methods, and early results of “Water and Us”, a three-module initiative that can contribute to advancing water education in a warming climate by focusing on the natural and anthropogenic water cycle, climate change, and emerging water conflicts. The method of Water and Us revolves around storytelling to aid understanding and generate new knowledge, learning by doing, a flipped-classroom environment, and a constant link to examples from the real world (such as ongoing droughts across the world or seeds of conflict regarding transnational river basins). Water and Us was established in 2021–2022 and, during that school year, involved ≥200 students as part of a proof of concept to test the complete didactic approach using small-scale experiments. Results from ≥40 h of proof-of-concept events confirmed the effectiveness of this approach with respect to conveying the essential elements of the natural and anthropogenic water cycle, the most commonly recurring concepts related to climate change and water as well as the possible conflicts and solutions related to water scarcity in a warming climate. The Water and Us team remains interested in networking with colleagues and potential recipients to upscale and further develop this work.

F. Grossi, M. Lagasio, A. Napoli, A. Provenzale, P. Tepsich, Phytoplankton spring bloom in the NW Mediterranean Sea under climate change, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 914, 2024, 169884, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.169884. 

The spring phytoplankton bloom is the main event influencing ecosystem richness in the pelagic realm of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea (NW Med Sea). The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the achievement of a good ecological status for the pelagic habitat, and phytoplankton bloom phenology has been used as an indicator of the status of offshore waters. In this work we investigate interannual changes in the timing and magnitude of the phytoplankton bloom in the NW Med Sea, using phenological metrics. Daily maps of Chl-a concentration from 1998 to 2022 obtained by CMEMS were used to analyse bloom phenological metrics in 5 representative sites in the area. Chlorophyll-a data from 1998 to 2007 were used for determining the climatological behaviour, while 2008–2022 was identified as the study period. For this latter period, yearly spring bloom were identified and interannual variability and overall trends were analysed for each of the phenological metrics considered. Winter oceanographic and meteorological data were analysed to investigate possible correlations with the subsequent spring bloom. The frequency of anomalous years is increasing, both for bloom intensity and sea temperature. Bloom analysis revealed a negative trend only in some areas, but a steep decrease in the last 7 years was noticeable for all sites considered. Correlations of the Chl-a concentration during bloom with oceanographic variables revealed the importance of temperature, both marine and atmospheric, while Mixed Layer Depth played a lesser role. This work contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of an area already under severe threat from human activities.

Napoli, A., Parodi, A., von Hardenberg, J., & Pasquero, C. (2023). Altitudinal dependence of projected changes in occurrence of extreme events in the Great Alpine Region. International Journal of Climatology, 43(12), 5813–5829. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8222

Climate change has a strong impact on the environment in mountain areas, where ecosystems have adapted to climatic conditions that change with elevation. In this study, the response of temperature and precipitation climatic indices in the complex orography setting of the Great Alpine Region is discussed. The high-resolution gridded dataset that is presented has been produced with the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) convection permitting regional model. Two 30-year periods have been considered (1979–2008, 2039–2068), obtained by downscaling global climate simulations with historical setting and RCP8.5 emission scenario. Both daily temperature and precipitation statistics have been found to be significantly different in the two periods, consisting in an overall projected warming and drying of the region. The dependence of the projected changes on elevation is highlighted, indicating a larger warming at medium and high elevations as well as a limited or nonexisting drying at high elevations. Physical mechanisms at the base of those differences are presented and discussed.

Rubin, Y.; Sohn, S.; Alpert, P. High-Resolution Humidity Observations Based on Commercial Microwave Links (CML) Data—Case of Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. Remote Sens. 2023, 15, 345. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020345

The humidity in the atmosphere plays a crucial role in a wide range of atmospheric processes determined by the water-vapor concentration in the air. The accuracy of weather forecasts is largely dictated by the humidity field measured at low atmospheric levels. At the near-surface level, the absolute humidity variations can be large due to the variability of land cover (LC). Cities are one of the primary LCs which have a substantial impact on the humidity field. Large urban areas are expanding, causing a significant change in the near-surface humidity field. Current measurement tools, however, do not satisfactorily assess the cities’ effects on the humidity field. This paper presents an innovative method for high-resolution humidity measurements based on the cellular network. Here, the humidity field around Tel Aviv was retrieved from the cellular network during the summer of 2017. The results show a well-noticed impact of the city and other LC types on the humidity field over the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The method presented here can offer an improved description of the humidity field at the city-canopy level and therefore provide a better assessment of the urban/LC effects on the environment, atmospheric modeling, and particularly on clouds/rain development.

Krichak, S. O., & Alpert, P. (2022). The role of the Near East surface pressure variations in recent past trends of wet season precipitation in the Levant. International Journal of Climatology, 42(14), 7103–7116. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7632

Using the ERA-20C reanalysis and CRU TS4.03 observation based data, the study indicates a role of the rise in October–March mean seasonal surface pressure over the Near East (NE) in an intensification of moist air mass transport from Africa into the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region during the last several decades. This yet non-addressed relevant mechanism allows an explanation for the actual less intense than over the rest of the Mediterranean Region (MR) precipitation decline as well as the rise in frequency of extreme precipitation events in the southern part of the EM under the global warming conditions in recent decades. This factor appears to be contributing in slowing the global warming associated precipitation decline in the southeastern EM and significant changes in the structure of the regional precipitation leading to an increase in the contribution of extreme precipitation associated with an intensification of the moist air mass transport over northeastern Africa—Arabian Peninsula area.