The Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR)

Adaptation and Resilience in Cities: Analysis and Decision making using Integrated Assessment (ARCADIA)

Funded by: EPSRC

In recognition of the significance of climate change in urban areas, from the points of view of both adaptation and mitigation, in 2005 the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research launched a new research programme on “Engineering Urban Systems”. Building on the previous success of the Tyndall Centre in interdisciplinary integrated assessment, the Tyndall Centre Cities Programme brought together research expertise from seven universities and a high profile stakeholder group to develop an Urban Integrated Assessment Facility (UIAF) that simulates the effects of long term changes in urban areas and can be used as a platform for testing the effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation strategies.

In little over two years the Tyndall Cities Programme has delivered a functioning assessment model (UIAF) that combines socio-economic and climate scenarios with regional economic modelling, simulation of land use change and spatially explicit assessment of climate impacts, as well as analysis of the effectiveness of various strategies for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Following on from the completion of the Tyndall Centre research in March 2009, the ARCADIA proposal aims to launch an ambitious new phase of development of the UIAF in order to better understand the vulnerability of urban areas and provide the evidence necessary to design the transition to a more resilient future.