A Lifewatercool mobile app to encourage citizen participation in climate adaptation.

A mobile application designed for the European LIFE Water Cool project in Seville proposes to promote a sustainable and responsible use of resources in cities and generate a differentiating experience that contributes to citizen participation in the fight against climate change and climate adaptation in cities.

The tool in the functional definition phase, called “Urban laboratory and adaptation office”, is designed by the company SDOS for the LIFE Water Cool project, co-financed by the European Union, which aims to achieve climate adaptation with actions that will be developed supported by the urban water network managed by Empresa Metropolitana de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento de Aguas de Sevilla, S.A. (Emasesa).

One of the app’s objectives is to help citizens understand the environmental changes occurring in their environment, the reason for the actions that are implemented, as well as “to make them co-participants in their origin and results”, explains SDOS spokeswoman Virginia Cid.

Under gamification and education techniques, the new tool promotes citizen-scale adaptation “of the support system to help decision-making, as well as adjusting the data model, actions, zones or restrictions to integrate it with private agents with the capacity to offer the resulting services”.

According to the SDOS spokeswoman, the application aims to act as a portal for communication and dissemination of “potential funding opportunities” available, current and future, along with the challenge of communicating future actions with a participatory nature, since the citizen will be able to check from the architectural design to the implementation improvements in their environment.

Dissemination of results is another of the pillars of the platform, which is intended for all types of public and is divided into different categories or screens to facilitate user accessibility.

Thus, on the home screen general information appears and the user or citizen who accesses it must open a profile to answer a questionnaire that will touch among other issues on the consumption of water, energy, technology, transportation, clothing or eating habits, as well as the type of detergent used for laundry, how to move around the city or the energy efficiency of their appliances.

The application will rate the progress of each user and will rank their answers in each category of the questionnaire. It will also offer advice on more sustainable and environmentally responsible consumption habits.

Another section is ‘My city’, which covers information related to actions in the fight against climate change, with data on environmental parameters or citizen proposals or news on economic aid linked to the improvement of facilities in your home or building.

In the ‘More information’ sections there is information on the Life Water Cool project and the ‘News’ section will deal with current issues on climate change and sustainability under a “more global” approach, including examples of other cities and their climate adaptation.

The LIFE Water Cool project is part of the European Union’s environmental projects called LIFE. It is coordinated by Emasesa, which aims to develop and test innovative solutions to cope with high temperatures in Seville, both outdoors and indoors, using temporary water runoff and in drought situations in an urban environment subject to climate change.  EFEverde

Information provided by EFEverde of Agencia EFE and published as part of its participation in the European Union’s Life WaterCool project.

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The contents of this document reflect the views only of the authors and the European Union/EASME is not responsible for the use of its contents.
the European Union/EASME is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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About LIFE18 CCA/ES/001122