The European Union is providing 26.6 million euros, or about 273 million kroner, for a completely new climate project.
“Withstands” It will improve the ability of local communities to stop and meet the climate challenges of the future.
What Europe needs to tackle climate change is more research where societies have a direct impact from the research, says Odd Are Svensen Research Director at Sentive.
This project is the largest ever as a Norwegian player has led in the European Union, if one ignores the coronary artery vaccine project.
– Now Sintef and its partners in Norway have a major project in the European Union where we will look at the impact of climate change that is happening in Europe, he says.
Research Foundation Sintef will lead 56 partners across Europe to better visualize and explain the climate impact to the government.
We want to enable them to make better decisions. He says we can build technology and methods that will make us more resilient to climate change in the future.
A total of 12 European regions have been identified as critical with respect to climate change. One of them is Vesterålen in Nordland.
The 3D model will show climate change
Vesterålen was selected as one of the districts.
The reason is that they are already starting to look at the effects that climate change can have on the local community.
This is especially true regarding sea level rise, harsher weather and higher sea temperatures.
The person who is satisfied with the award is project manager Ane Høyem at GaiaVesterålen.
– It’s totally crazy! She says and continues:
– We’ve been working on this for several years already. We’re right on the sea, we’re vulnerable to climate change, and it’s important that we use time to adapt, says Høyem.
They have already built a digital model over a small section of Vesterålen.
Here they will be able to show changes, for example, sea level in the future.
– what do you see?
– everything. It shows how climate change will affect us here in Vesterålen. Among other things, we will be able to see how the sea level will appear and various forecasts. We know, according to the United Nations Climate Panel, that sea levels could rise by 50 centimeters to about two meters in the next 50-100 years.
12 areas at risk
The project will not only be implemented in Vesterålen.
In 12 other regions of the European Union, there will be a similar project. Among others are Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Italy, and Greece.
We will cooperate in the exchange of knowledge, innovation and development of the system that allows us to adapt to climate change. Hoym says the 12 regions have an important role to play in halting climate change and in the pursuit of climate adaptation.
The selected regions of Greece and Portugal face many of the same challenges as Vesterålen. It is primarily sea level rise and weather changes. In other regions such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland, they need to look more closely at the drought.
Sintef’s Director of Research Odd Are Svensen hopes that GaiaVesterålen’s digital twin will be used to show the effects of climate change in other parts of the world as well.
Photo: Lars-Bjørn Martinsen / NRK
What is common in these areas is that we want to use technology to manage to make societies better and that they should learn from it. What Vesterålen has developed, for example, is a good thing digital twin. Svensen in Sintef explains the effects on society, and is also used elsewhere.
– I think this can put us at the forefront of the green shift
Now they will develop the model to apply it to larger and larger areas
In the future, it will be able to include more data to be able to show the physical effects of climate change and the measures it will face.
In addition to developing the 3D model, they are also planning an Arctic climate conference and an environmental contract with local residents.
Project Director Ane Høyem at GaiaVesterålen is one of many who will be working on the project.
Photo: Lars-Bjørn Martinsen
– First, it is great that we have been involved in bringing the largest research project ever to Norway from the European Union. We believe it can put us ahead and at the forefront of the green transformation.
Currently, participants are working on getting ready to start operating from January 2023. The goal is for them to come up with 100 concrete actions on how to adapt to climate change.
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