Disruptive events such as flash floods, forest fires, and storm winds, exacerbated by climate change and increasing urban populations, will have a particularly significant impact on the vulnerable populations and building stock that inhabit our cities. These vulnerable buildings were designed and constructed for a climate that is now changing, making them unfit to ensure the safety of their occupants. Predictive systems such as weather forecasting, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, and remote sensing have improved our ability to predict the impact of disruptive climate events on our cities. However, the complexity of urban environments, coupled with the lack of data to identify and predict the impact of such events on vulnerable building stock, leaves large urban areas exposed to future events, with devastating consequences in terms of loss of life and damage.

In the EU, between 1980 and 2020 alone, up to €520 billion in losses caused by disruptive climate events have been recorded, resulting in severe loss of life and damage to critical infrastructure, housing and livelihoods. These built environments are not only susceptible to climatic and natural events, but also affect their inhabitants, many of whom belong to the most vulnerable populations on the planet, with up to 1 billion low-income citizens exposed to risks worldwide. The combination of vulnerable populations and critical systems underscores the urgency, both moral and economic, of integrating resilience into daily life.