Regional climate models predict that the mean air temperature in Europe will rise 2 to 6°C by 2100. This means that winters will be milder and
summers hotter, with an intensification of extreme heat waves in summer. The WHO acknowledges that the future increase in temperature will
have profound effects on the health and well-being of citizens in Europe. In order to mitigate the problems with intensified heat stress and to take
policy actions of adaptation and mitigation of climate change in relation urban sustainability quantitative information on factors determining
outdoor thermal comfort is required. This research proposal is based on the results from the pre-research project The potential impact of climate
change on heat stress in different built structures and cities across Europe, which was granted within the first Urban-Net call and addresses the
gaps of knowledge, research needs and common research interests that were identified at an European workshop organized with the project. The
main objective of this interdisciplinary and transnational research project is to study the effects of anthropogenic climate change on outdoor
thermal comfort in urban areas as well as develop a set of design guidelines and policies on how maintain health and thermal comfort under
changed climate conditions and extreme weather events in European cities. The cities of Göteborg in Sweden, Kassel in Germany and Porto in
Portugal, representing a northern, mid and southern European city, with different prerequisites will be selected for case studies. Methods will
include statistical downscaling of data from GCMs, spatial modelling of thermal comfort in different urban settings, thermal comfort analyses,
national and international workshops with key stakeholders and project meetings. The research consortium includes scientists from urban and
regional climatology, geography, biometeorology, health, environmental engineering, landscape architecture and urban and regional as well as
key stakeholders of Sweden, Germany and Portugal.