PROTECT delivers an integrated, evidence-led pathway to urban heat resilience, fusing high-resolution climate intelligence, hybrid cooling interventions, and operational continuity protocols into a deployment-ready framework for European cities. The strategy builds on three interlinked innovation pillars.
i) A city-calibrated sensing, modelling, and forecasting backbone unifying Earth observation, sensor, morphology, socio-demographic, and health data, delivering downscaled heat forecasts, equity-weighted risk mapping, and hyperlocal early warnings for neighbourhoods and critical facilities.
ii) Optimised Heat-Resilient Intervention Packages combining green, blue, and grey measures, selected through microclimate simulation, multi-objective optimisation, and maladaptation screening, then instrumented and verified in the field over at least two heat seasons.
iii) Living labs and a digital resilience toolkit within the integrated platform, connecting cities, utilities, health and civil protection services, and citizens in a community enabling co-design, geo-targeted alerts, and heat-day operating protocols.
PROTECT will serve as a platform for boosting innovation in the assessment of integrated heat adaptation solutions, providing a data-rich environment to evaluate nature-based interventions, decision-support systems, and digital tools, strengthening adaptation planning, outcomes-driven procurement, and investment decisions. The PROTECT framework will be unfolded in three phases: co-creation of the platform architecture and core toolset; demonstrations across five Front-Runner and three Follower cities evaluating cooling performance, service continuity, health risk, and replicability; and consolidation through financing pathways, capacity building, and pre-standardisation guidance. Delivered by a 33-partner consortium of municipalities, research organisations, and industry, PROTECT aims to establish a safe, equitable, and sustainable paradigm for urban heat resilience aligned with the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and the EU Adaptation Strategy.