Plug&Play: Self-Sufficient Technological Devices for Outdoor Spaces to Mitigate the UHI Effect

This contribution regards the technological innovation and the transformation of outdoor spaces within the consolidated city where the theme of the research focuses on environmental recovery practices and adaptation to climate change in the open urban public space in the Mediterranean area. In particular, certain innovative technologies are investigated, verifying their effectiveness and impact on environmental sustainability within the urban tissue, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the user’s thermo-hygrometric comfort. in line with directions of “strategies for the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change” defined by the Europe-ADAPT Platform (2012), URBACT III (2014–2020), and the UHI Project (2011–2014), according to the directions of Target 20-20-20 and of the Paris Agreement (COP21, 2015), ratification national law 204/2016 and UN framework. The research presented focuses on different tools for monitoring, mapping, and modeling (Ecotect and Envimet software), probing the relationship between morphology, urban microclimate, and well-being, and analyzing the relationship between urban design and urban climatology at the micro, meso, and macro scales, especially as regards the adoption of strategies to adapt to the climate and mitigate the phenomenon of urban heat island (UHI), particularly felt in Mediterranean cities characterized by consolidated and dense historical urban tissues. Furthermore, attention is focused on social aspects of urban quality, which, especiallyin the Mediterranean area, are deeply linked to outdoor thermal comfort, an area where spaces with good thermal-hygrometric well-being encouragecommunity living, promoting, where well-designed, urban identity and sociality among the inhabitants.